Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Thrawn on November 03, 2002, 02:59:40 PM

Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Thrawn on November 03, 2002, 02:59:40 PM
"JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- Saudi Arabia's foreign minister pledged his country's allegiance with the United States in its fight against the al Qaeda terrorist group, but said Saudi Arabia would not allow its bases and airspace to be used in any U.S.-led military strike against Iraq.

"We will cooperate with the [U.N.] Security Council, but as to entering the conflict or using the facilities as part of the conflict, that's something else," Prince Saud al-Faisal told CNN's Christiane Amanpour in a recent interview, when asked about allowing overflights by U.S. forces."


http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/11/03/us.saudis/index.html


I imagine this kinda throws a wrench into things.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Kanth on November 03, 2002, 03:11:14 PM
Exactly what kind of cooperation is going to be given to the UN security council then?

I'm not surprised at all, I think they nod and smile and wait for their chance for jihad against the evil satan.

Maybe we should have GB lead this one, that pretty much negates part of what they've said.

They won't allow overflights by US Forces, but we're not the only one in the UN with planes so that's all good.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: -ammo- on November 03, 2002, 06:40:52 PM
I am not surprised.  They have wanted us out of PSAB, Dahran, and Riyahd for a long time.  AFAIK, all that is left is PSAB anymore (for air ops, there are other activities in other locations).

What do we do you say?  We do *alot* of air op's from Carrier battle groups in the PG and we limit our AF structure from Incirlik, (and a few other Turk bases), Kuwait,  and some long range stuff from elsewhere in the med.  However, those kind of op's are very hard to sustain for long periods of time. I know that we flew bomber sorties from RAF Fairford, Moron Spain, and Diego Garcia daily against Iraq in '91.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Fatty on November 03, 2002, 06:48:51 PM
Hadn't they said this a long time ago?  I thought that's why Qatar had stepped up so readily hoping to fill SA's role.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Thrawn on November 03, 2002, 06:51:41 PM
I just looked at a map of Iraq.  Looks like the only plausible places to invade is Turkey or Kuwait.  I wonder how they would feel about that?
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: whgates3 on November 03, 2002, 07:59:52 PM
Qatar already said they would let us use bases there - close enough at the speed an F-15 travels - actually might be a bit better, as it is out of SCUD range
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Thrawn on November 03, 2002, 08:07:25 PM
Sure, you can bomb it to kingdom come.  But what about ground forces?
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Kanth on November 03, 2002, 08:48:15 PM
I would like to see Kuwait tell us that we can't use their bases or overfly their country to attack Iraq.

That'd be interesting.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Innominate on November 03, 2002, 08:54:50 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Kanth
I would like to see Kuwait tell us that we can't use their bases or overfly their country to attack Iraq.


Havn't they?
Or did they just tell us not to use airbases there?

Anyways, You can't REALLY blame Saudi Arabia for not helping us go into iraq.  They would be shooting themselves in the foot(If they were lucky!) doing so.  The only thing that could be worse for the Saudis than a homicidal dictator is a democratic nation, which we've made clear we want in Iraq.

You can't ask a country's leaders to help out in something which will eventually remove them from power.

Anyways, as for a reason to bomb Iraq, Saddam is a tyrant, a danger to his people, and his neighbors.  There is lots of money to be made on the oil.(A big reason the french and russia are fighting this, they have oil deals with Iraq currently)  We have all this new technology, new weapons, new tactics, we need SOMETHING to use it on.  Afganistan hardly counts.

As an iraqi official(Maybe saddam?) said, Iraq wouldn't be like afganistan, and I sure hope they're right.  We need something more tangible to blow up than caves.

So am I the only one who wants to see us go into iraq, just to hear about all the new toys the military has to play with?  And maybe find out something about any currently classified weapons/aircraft?
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Toad on November 03, 2002, 10:06:52 PM
Save tomorrow for tomorrow.

Let's just hope the UN inspections are truly unrestricted and show that there's nothing there. That'd probably be the best to hope for. I'm not real optimistic on either possibility though.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: whgates3 on November 03, 2002, 11:54:20 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Kanth
I would like to see Kuwait tell us that we can't use their bases or overfly their country to attack Iraq.

That'd be interesting.


who would want to have your airforces on the ground near the front lines.  the USAAF 8th AF was in great shape on the ground in England during operation Bodenplatte.  the 9th - on the ground near the front lines - took the strafing.
http://www.legendofy29.homestead.com/main.html
however, it would be nice to have some emergency landing sites in kuwait or to northern part of the kingdom of saud
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: easymo on November 04, 2002, 01:11:09 AM
IMO we should declare total war on the Middle East. A trade war.  (If the tree huggers would cover their ears for a moment. Thank you).

  When I was a boy,  Most of what is wrapped in plastic now, was wrapped in wood (paper).  Waxed paper made a fine barrier to bacteria. It wrapped everything from candy bars, to raw meat.  TV sets use to have wooden cabinets.  So even your beloved computer could be in wood.  If we could pry the tree huggers off them things, What we could make out of them, is only limited by our imaginations.  It is a renewable resource, thats not news.  We could put a huge dent in Mohammed bank account doing this alone.  We also EXport large amounts of oil.  Stop that.  And screw the One eyed blubeard wooddonut.  Jump his land and find new sources of oil, to tide us over.  While doing that, take our minds out of neutral, and figure out a way to get around, without burning the stuff.  We have nuclear power, (I told you guys to cover your ears:))a near endless source of energy.  We could run damned near everything off of them, including cars.  We dont really need something that will go 100 MPH. We would be safer moving at half that speed anyway. We produce more then enough oil, for our defense needs.  If you think Mohammed is just going to sell to other countries, think about this.  We have proven to be very clever about developing new technologies.  The new technologies that would come out of this approach, would be quickly adopted by western countries.  And eventually the others.

  With an oil glut, these guys are back to selling pasticcio nuts for a living.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: mrfish on November 04, 2002, 01:20:05 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Fatty
Hadn't they said this a long time ago?  I thought that's why Qatar had stepped up so readily hoping to fill SA's role.


you lose the conch for blasphemy fatty - the saudi's are our long time soul-mates, didn't you catch the moving commercials?

sniff-
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Eagler on November 04, 2002, 06:57:47 AM
guess since THEIR terrorists didn't bring the US financial market to its knees on 9/11, they, the saudis - are going to plan "B"

gotta like the way they scream for UN approval then state it doesn't matter anyway...

screw em

we do what we need to do, if they make to much noise we take their oil and send them back to the sand dunes with their camels in tow...
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: LLv34_Camouflage on November 04, 2002, 07:12:20 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Innominate

We have all this new technology, new weapons, new tactics, we need SOMETHING to use it on.  


:rolleyes:

I really hope a peaceful solution will be reached. :(

Camo
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Thrawn on November 04, 2002, 09:42:07 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Eagler
we do what we need to do, if they make to much noise we take their oil and send them back to the sand dunes with their camels in tow...


Dude, they're a soveign nation.  Don't you think they have the right to say whether on not they want a foreign nations military there?
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Monk on November 04, 2002, 09:55:56 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Eagler

gotta like the way they scream for UN approval then state it doesn't matter anyway...

 


The Arab way.
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: midnight Target on November 04, 2002, 10:02:03 AM
Hardly a surprise. Wasn't it the basing of American troops in SA that Bin Laden and his ilk were most upset about? Do ya think the Saudi's want to create more Bin Ladens?
Title: Saudis: No bases for Iraq strike
Post by: Monk on November 04, 2002, 10:21:52 AM
You do have a point, always did think after the Gulf War it was time to get out.