Iraq War Would Bring Increase In

Jane Merrick of the Press Association reported that the Oxford Research Group believes and Iraq war will increase terrorism by al-Qaeda against the United States. It believes that 10,000 civilians will die in an American attack on Iraq. Paul Rogers, a professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University, said that Saddam would likely use chemical and biological weapons in the war. He foresaw an increase in support for al-Qaeda as a backlash against the war in the region.

Rogers thinks Saddam will try to draw the war out and make it as costly as possible for the Americans. “Almost certainly, the dominant strand of thinking within the Saddam Hussein regime is the imperative for survival. This must not be underestimated – it transcends every other objective.”

Meanwhile, evidence mounts of Serbian-Bosnian involvement in supplying military materiel to Iraq.

And, at the United Nations, France is now calling for a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Security Council states, to hammer out a compromise resolution on weapons inspections in Iraq. The US has been pressing for a resolution that would be broad enough to authorize military action without the necessity of coming back to the council. Russia and France are strongly resisting such language.