|
Europe
Alarmed By U.S. Plan for General to Govern Iraq
|
|
Anti-war
demonstrations worldwide do not seem to convince Bush to back
off
|
LONDON,
October 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - America's European
allies are alarmed at a plan, on the making, in Washington to install
a U.S. general to govern Iraq, after an inevitable invasion is
complete, a British paper reported Sunday, October 13.
According
to The Telegraph, the proposal (invading Iraq and installing
a U.S. military ruler there to replace
the Iraqi regime) is an implicit acknowledgement that America's
long-running effort to identify an immediate and credible
successor to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein,
among the ranks of the Iraqi opposition, has foundered.
Diplomats
say that the suggestion, made by senior Bush administration officials
Friday, October 11, has endangered frantic American and British
efforts to secure a United Nations Security Council resolution backing
tough new weapons inspections inside Iraq, the paper added.
One
European official said: "If you're worried about military action
and you have concerns about American intentions, as some people do,
then this kind of suggestion is only going to increase your
suspicion."
Iraqi
dissidents and the Arab League expressed dismay at the prospect of the
country being run by a foreign power.
Hamid
al-Bayati, a representative of the Supreme Council for Islamic
Revolution in Iraq, a Shiite-led opposition group, met U.S. officials
in August. He said: "We were told that they want a broad-based
Iraqi government, with no direct American role."
Under
the plan, modeled on America's occupation of Japan after the Second
World War, a top American commander - possibly General Tommy Franks,
now in charge of U.S. forces in the region - would assume the senior
role in a coalition-run regime.
The
military regime's first task would be to find and destroy Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction. Only once this was achieved, after at
least a year, would power be passed to Iraq's opposition groups, who
are judged incapable of quickly forming a stable government.
France
and Russia, two of the five permanent members of the United Nations
Security Council, are dragging their feet over U.S. calls for
inspections to be backed up by the simultaneous threat of military
force, and many NATO members are also nervous.
The
plan emanated from the Pentagon, where U.S. hawks, led by Donald
Rumsfeld, the Defense Secretary, want a quick invasion, assisted by
hoped-for mutinies within Iraqi military ranks.
One
London-based diplomat told The Telegraph, "Someone at the
Pentagon has decided it's a good time to leak this, without thinking
that it does not go down well elsewhere."
At
a practical level, there are doubts over whether America has
sufficient service personnel required. The total strength of the U.S.
armed forces is 1,414,000, with an army of 485,000, but of these only
15 per cent or less are deployable on operations overseas.
American
planners calculate that a force of 75,000 U.S. and allied troops will
be needed for the occupation, which could last up to 10 years.
Under
the plans, a ground force of five armored divisions and two airborne
and helicopter assault divisions will be used in the operation to
remove Saddam.
Jack
Straw, the British Foreign Secretary, flies to Washington this week to
warn America that it must prepare to back down on its demand for a
single UN resolution authorizing new weapons inspections inside Iraq
and military force if they fail.
Straw
will tell Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, that after a month of
diplomatic negotiations it is now unlikely that Russia and France will
agree to the American demand.
Instead
British officials are pinning their hopes on a weaker option: a first,
strongly-worded resolution setting out the inspections regime and
making clear that some kind of consequence will follow if Iraq fails
to co-operate. A second resolution, explicitly authorizing force,
could follow if necessary.
"We'd
prefer a single resolution, but the most important thing is to have a
UN process," said one official. "We do not want to end up
with no UN resolution at all."
The
Iraqi regime has dismayed the UN chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix,
and strengthened the hand of British and American diplomats by going
back on arrangements for a new round of inspections in Iraq which Blix
thought had been agreed.
An
Iraqi letter to the UN, which came to light Saturday, October 11,
failed to confirm details that Blix thought had been nailed down at
the end of last month.
It
said security guarantees could not be provided for UN aircraft in
northern and southern Iraq, unless no-fly zones patrolled by British
and American aircraft were lifted.
"We
are not surprised that once again the Iraqis want to delay and
deceive," said a spokesman for John D Negroponte, the U.S.
ambassador to the UN.
Meanwhile
in Baghdad, Iraq's parliament was meeting Saturday night in emergency
session to respond to the U.S. Congress vote authorizing President
Bush to use force to disarm Iraq.
|
