America Did A Live Ammunition Drill Near the Iraqi Border

▽America started the biggest scale drill=America decided to dispatch additional 50,000 troops and started the biggest scale military drill since the Gulf War in 1991 in the Kuwait Desert near the Iraqi border on the 21st. The soldiers belonged to the US 2nd Brigade and the 3rd Infantry Division started a two-day live ammunition firing drill mobilizing tanks and Bradley armored vehicles in the Kuwait Desert, only few kilometers away from the Iraqi border. The soldiers of the 2nd Brigade had a drill to attack targets, which were made up like trenches and mine fields in Iraq, using M1A1 tanks.

The New York Times reported that the US CIA officials, in cooperation with the people of Kurd in northern Iraq last few weeks, looked for military bases there and selected candidates to be trained as scouts and interpreters.

In the meantime this newspaper and the Washington Post reported, “America will provide intelligence that she collected mainly through intelligence satellites such as suspicious sites for hiding the Iraqi weapons of massive destruction (WMD) to the UN Arms Inspectors as early as this weekend.” The White House has worried that if she provided the intelligence to the UN, it could be flown out to Iraq, and the evident could be destroyed.

▽Building a war atmosphere through media=The British Sunday Telegraph reported on the 22nd, “America and the UK made a plan to do the biggest scale landing operation in the Basra in southern Iraq mobilizing the Marine Corps first when they attack Iraq.” This newspaper added, “The scale of the British Landing Unit is at least 40,000 including 5,500 Marines, and it is the biggest in 20 years,” and “From America, two expedition Marine Corps units will be mobilized.”

The Sunday Times also reported that day, “Experts are being confident to finish the war in just two days.” This paper explained that the unexpected combination of strategy, which the infantry units attack Baghdad almost simultaneously with heavy bombing, is to induce ‘breaking down from inside’ of the Sadam Hussein`s government.

▽Criticism against America is getting higher in the Middle East=The 6 member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Committee (GCC) including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain had an annual summit on the 21st, asked an early conclusion of inspection by the UN Arms Inspectors, and stressed, “The national security, conservation of territory, and independence of Iraq must be respected, and intervention of domestic affairs by another countries must be excluded.” Syria, which was not even a GCC member, also said, “America, which closes her eyes on WMD that Israel has, calls only Iraq into question,” and criticized America, “There is no justification for attacking Iraq.”

In the meantime, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry announced to return a portion of the assets of the Kuwaiti royal family that Iraq snatched when she attacked Kuwait in 1990, so she continued the appeasement policy.

Rae-Jeong Park ecopark@donga.com