US May Attack Iraq This Week

On March 16 President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair declared their intentions to begin military operations against Iraq regardless of UN endorsement and said “diplomatic efforts to win support for disarming Iraq would end on Monday.”

President Bush is said to be going through last-minute preparations for war and will announce his ultimatum to Iraq through an address to the nation on Monday night (Tuesday morning, Korea Time)

Foreigners such as UN officials and reporters will be given 2 or 3 days to evacuate Baghdad, and possibly this week, operations will begin with massive air-strikes in an effort to rid Iraq of President Saddam Hussein.

“Unless the Iraqi government disarms, it will be disarmed by force,” President Bush and Prime Minister Blair declared, indicating their diplomatic efforts would be over on Monday after their Three Nation Emergency Meeting in the Azores off the Portuguese coast also attended by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar Lopez.

“The only way to avoid war is for President Hussein to leave office,” Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and other senior officials have repeatedly stated.

UN inspectors in Iraq and on the Kuwait border will completely stop inspections on Monday and prepare for evacuations.

On this issue, the UN Security Council will discuss its proposal of extending inspections as proposed by France, Germany and Russia on Monday. However, there would be no dramatic change as the US declared that the “extension of inspections cannot be part of any agenda.”

The New York Times reported on Monday that the Iraqi government has moved most of its core military force around Baghdad along with its air defenses.

President Hussein has also reshuffled his high command, putting the defense of the country in the hands of his most loyal relatives and deputies, and his son Qusay responsible for the defense of the capital. President Hussein warned that "the battle between us will be open wherever there is sky, land and water all over the world."

In the meantime, the FBI has mobilized as many as 5,000 agents to guard against terrorist attacks, and the Department of Homeland Security could raise the nation`s color-coded threat level to orange which means "high risk.”

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