Long story from the Asia Times. Worth reading.
It may come as quite a shock, but thunderous silence does not mean that all's quiet on the Iraqi western front. "The surprise is not the attack on Baghdad or the advance from Kuwait. The surprise will come from Jordan," a top Jordanian source told Asia Times Online. The source says that well over 400 American tanks and more than 7,000 American troops may well be on their way to Baghdad from a remote launching pad in eastern Jordan. Thousands more troops — at least half of them Special Forces — will arrive over the weekend. So far, the tanks and heavy military equipment have arrived by ship at the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba and have been deployed to the east shrouded in utmost secrecy. Secrecy is paramount, according to the source.
Not anymore, apparently.
The Revolutionary Command Council in Baghdad apparently has no idea that this may be happening, while 5 million Jordanians — including a vast majority of Palestinians — condemn the Anglo-American invasion. Marwan Muasher, Jordan's Foreign Minister, still insists that no more than 2,000 American and British troops are in the country, and then only for defensive purposes: to operate the three Patriot anti-missile batteries that have been set up to defend the capital Amman and the city of Irbid in northern Jordan.
This is just an excerpt. As the man says, read the whole thing. |