- LISBON (Sapa-AFP) -- The
United States does not have the military means to take
- over Baghdad and will lose the war against Iraq, former
United Nations
- weapons inspector Scott Ritter said.
-
- "The United States is going to leave Iraq with its
tail between its
- legs, defeated. It is a war we can not win," he
told private radio TSF
- in an interview broadcast here Tuesday evening.
-
- "We do not have the military means to take over
Baghdad and for this
- reason I believe the defeat of the United States in this
war is
- inevitable," he said.
-
- "Every time we confront Iraqi troops we may win
some tactical battles,
- as we did for ten years in Vietnam but we will not be
able to win this
- war, which in my opinion is already lost," Ritter
added.
-
- 'It is a war we can not win'
-
- Stiffening Iraqi resistance as US-led forces close in
on Baghdad have
- prompted questions about the strategy to use precision
air power and a
- smaller, fast moving ground force to topple Iraqi President
Saddam
- Hussein.
-
- Some military analysts have said there are not enough
allied troops in
- Iraq to take control of Baghdad, where Saddam Hussein's
elite troops
- are said to be concentrated, and that the planning of
the war was
- overly optimistic.
-
- But British Prime Minister Tony Blair told parliament
Wednesday the
- United States and Britain believe they have "sufficient
forces" in
- Iraq and London was not planning to send reinforcements
to the country
- at this stage.
-
- [LSN: They are currently sending 40,000 reinforcements
-- the US 4th
- Infantry and the 1st Cavalry. The Washington Times is
overjoyed at
- this, because their only embedded reporter is with the
4th Infantry
- and they've been furious that he hasn't seen action.]
-
- A combination of bad weather and heavy fighting in central
Iraq has
- slowed the advance of coalition troops marching on Baghdad.
-
- Ritter resigned in August 1998 after accusing both Washington
and the
- United Nations of not doing enough to support the weapons
inspectors.
-
- Since leaving the UN weapons inspectors team he has become
an
- outspoken critic of US policies towards Iraq. - Sapa-AFP
-
- http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?sf=2813&click_id=281
- 3&art_id=qw1048759020549B262&set_id=6
|
