Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(February 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
Widening the war against terrorism.
President Bush has several times threatened to expand the
war on terrorism. The countries of Somalia, Yemen, Iraq,
Korea, the Philippines and Mauritania have been mentioned
as possible targets.
What's been happening in Mauritania that has stirred his
ire, could it have something to do with diamonds---have
I missed something. ???
 Now
we come back to the "Mother of all enemies", Iraq.
Army General Wayne A. Downing presented a plan to topple
Saddam Hussein as early as 1998, which I understand is being
revisited by the White House.
I think that things have changed somewhat in Iraq, and the
United States would face a more formidable military force
than previously encountered in Desert Storm.
It has been estimated that Iraq now has more than 400,000
troops, although some specialists say that the strength
of the Iraqi force is often exaggerated.
In today's news, (10th January 2002), Mr. Bush has issued
a warning to Iran not to be instrumental in the destabilization
of Afghanistan. It would appear that Iran would be an even
more formidable foe than Iraq, and has military power in
excess of 500,000 troops. We should be very careful in throwing
out what maybe considered to be idle threats
Note: General Wayne A. Downing, (or one of his aides),
presented me with a Special Operations Forces Medallion
in Normandy on the 5th of June 1994 after parachuting into
Sainte Mer Eglise on the 50th anniversary of the initial
"D" day invasion landings.
Propaganda machine goes astray. !!!
 An
A.P. report suggests that the United States, in its fervor
to fight terrorism, produced two high profile propaganda
documents having questionable accuracy. One of the documents,
a Defense Department leaflet dropped over Afghanistan, included
a picture supposed to depict Osama bin Laden wearing western
style clothing with hair cut short and minus beard. The
caption read "The murderer and coward has abandoned
you".
The propaganda ad has been described by a notable institution
as being worthy of tactics employed by tabloid newspapers
and commented that this was sloppy journalistic mis-information
containing inaccurate information.
|
