STORM2K

Feb. 22 — Iraq faced a new test of its willingness to disarm on Saturday after the chief U.N. arms inspector ordered Baghdad to begin destroying its banned missiles by March 1. Meanwhile, President Bush met with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, one of Washington’s strongest European allies on Iraq, in Crawford, Texas, as the United States and Britain prepared to submit a draft resolution to U.N. Security Council members that seeks authorization for war.

Full story - http://www.msnbc.com/news/842500.asp?vts=022220030720

If Saddam fails to comply this could be the final trigger. The destruction is supposed to start by March 1st. That is also the next date that Blix will report to the UN. I expect Iraq to protest but slowly comply with a token destruction of some components on Feb 28th. We'll just have to see...

Dolphin - after the past several weeks of watching their dance, my opinion is that they're just killing time as it were; there is no question that they're going to Blast into Baghdad & parts unknown. One doesn't deploy thousands of troops, massive artiliary/equipment, ships and drop in special forces months ahead of time just to lounge around. It's just a matter of time. There is speculation on the time around the new moon, before the heat arrives, after the negotiations & inspections end, and on & on... In actuallity, when least expected - expect it!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,79283,00.html

Already in Iraq they are saying that for defensive purpuses they can't destroy them.

This is the same cat and mouse game that for 12 years Saddam has played to the UN.

I think that by mid march the military action will begin.

I'm kind of surprised that Blix is willing to confront SH like that. SH is counting on the UN to get tired of this and become distracted by something else, like Korea.