Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Special Edition - Mid February 2003)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
The war of words goes on.
 Mr
Bush continues his daily TV appearances with a view to
getting the American people fired up to accept a war with
Iraq. His words, and that of his Lieutenants such as Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell,
etc, are long on rhetoric and short on substance.
Today the 11th of February 2003, National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice, (William Shakespeare may have remarked,
“what’s in a name”), flew to New York
for an unannounced meeting with Hans  Blix,
the chief United Nations weapons inspector, with the intentions,
according to United Nations diplomats, of pressing the
Chief Weapons Inspector to acknowledge at a meeting to
be held on Friday the 14th of February, (Valentine’s
day), that Iraq has failed to voluntarily scrap its prohibited
chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs.
Many Americans in their naivety expect a short war,
similar to Gulf War One where the fighting was over quickly
and a victory was achieved with a minimum amount of American
casualties.
 If
this future war, (which has many detractors), is fought
by the coalition of two, then not only can we expect many
American and British casualties, but what the American
public doesn’t seem to realize is that we will have
to remain in Iraq for many years after the event. One
potential terrible and macabre consequence that has not
received much publicity in the local press is that if
Saddam Hussein uses chemical or biological weapons against
American and British troops, the bodies of casualties
will probably have to be incinerated immediately to prevent
possible contamination and will not be coming back in
body bags.
This may be a controversial subject, but I have always
been of the opinion that the war dead should be buried
where they fell, such as the poppy fields of Flanders
and other locations in France, (World War One), and the
cemeteries of Normandy which contain the bodies of soldiers
killed in action during the invasion of France in World
War Two. This of course goes against the wishes and desires
of many people of many nations, who consider that their
loved ones should be brought back home. May they all rest
in peace, where ever their final resting place is destined
to be.
This is a terrible thing to discuss and everyone has their
own ideas and feelings on the subject and I hope that
such feelings are respected with the greatest of sincerity.
We welcome feedback about any of the contents
of these newsletters. Please send all correspondence to
bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
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