Just days after the Iraq war officially ended, The Age reported (May 10) that Australian troops had fought the first battles, killing and capturing Iraqi soldiers a day before US President George Bush declared the invasion had begun.
This remarkable true story went unnoticed in Australia, yet its strategic implications are crucial. Australian SAS troops initiated pre-emptive combat in western Iraq on the evening of March 18 (Iraq time). The force, previously secretly inserted into Iraq, attacked Iraqi positions in the first hours of darkness, 16 hours after Bush's 48-hour ultimatum to Saddam to cede power. Washington was determined to protect Israel against potential Iraqi Scud missile attack during the pre-invasion phase. This crucial task fell to Australia's SAS. The US had admired how effective the SAS had been in Afghanistan in operating behind enemy lines. They wanted the SAS for this job, and US-Australian operational planning began in mid-2002.
How these SAS pre-emptive operations were disguised by Washington and Canberra is crucial to this story.
Read the rest here.
....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
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