U.S. - IRAQ INVASION LIKELY TO BEGIN WITH STATE of the UNION, Tuesday

Serious international developments are indicating that the first stages of the U.S. invasion of Iraq will begin unilaterally no later than next Wednesday and most likely as the President delivers his State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday night.

The Associated Press reported today, in a story little noticed by mainstream American press, that the Japanese government had today urged all Japanese citizens to leave Iraq as soon as possible. Japan has large numbers of its nationals working in Iraq in various trade and oil-related business ventures. According to a second report today on CNN Headline News the Japanese advisory was specific that all Japanese citizens should be out of the country by next Wednesday at the latest.
[more]

  thanks to Cursor

Robert Fisk: The wartime deceptions: Saddam is Hitler and it's not about oil

The Israeli writer Uri Avnery once delivered a wickedly sharp open letter to Menachem Begin, the Israeli prime minister who sent his army to defeat in Lebanon. Enraged by Begin's constant evocation of the Second World War – likening Yasser Arafat in Beirut to Hitler in his Berlin bunker in 1945 – Avnery entitled his letter: "Mr Prime Minister, Hitler is Dead."
[more]

Three meetings and a funeral

The diplomatic endgame starts now. This is the ultimate question: How long is the US willing to wait after Hans Blix's crucial January 27 report to the Security Council? Washington's verdict seems to be final: Saddam Hussein is guilty until pronounced guilty. A few days ago, American officials were talking about the wait in terms of "weeks", not months. Now there's every indication that they will be talking about a few "days", not weeks. The war against Iraq can be launched any time between mid and late February. But there are deep fears in the Arab world that it could be launched as early as the day after the so-called war council between George W Bush and Tony Blair on Friday, January 31.
[more]

  thanks to Mother Jones

The Problem is Peace - War is the Solution

Anticipation. It is almost palpable here. Rumors and speculation ride the desert winds and cruise across the horizon like the squall line of a coming sandstorm.

Everyone says they heard this or that. One rumor says the Japanese government has warned its citizens here in the Middle East to evacuate by Wednesday, or the weekend at the latest. My Egyptian co-worker said he heard on Arab radio that the war would start on the 14th of February. Others say they have read that the bombs will fall by mid-March and it will be worse than the first Gulf War. People all over the Gulf are stocking up on bottled water and fuel and extra food. Even the U.S. Embassy issued a "preparedness" email to Wardens telling American citizens to be prepared for hostile acts and terrorism increase and possible emergency evacuations of certain regions and countries.

All of this is in anticipation of Bush's Tuesday speech. No one expects this speech to be a "normal" State of the Union speech. As my British pal says, "It should be a short speech. After all, how long does it take to say that the state of the union is - bollocks." Translation = crap.
[more]

Gulf War 2 (aka World War 2.5)

This is a projection of the most likely outcome of a new war in the Gulf. I used sophisticated temporal algorithms and historical semiotic analysis to achieve an accuracy rating of 99.999%. It's the mother of all Flash games.
[more]

  thanks to MetaFilter