IRAQ - The Coming US Offensive.

The CentCom chief who heads the US forces in the Middle East and other countries, Gen. John Abizaid, on Sept. 26 warned on NBC: "We're going to have to fight our way all the way through elections (in Iraq scheduled for Jan. 31, 2005) and there'll be a lot of violence between now and then...

I don't think we'll ever achieve perfection, and when we look for perfection in a combat zone, we're going to be sadly disappointed". He compared the situation in Iraq to the disputed outcome of the US presidential election in 2000 which put Bush in the White House after a protracted fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. Abizaid predicted that in Iraq, there will be voting by Jan. 31 in the "vast majority of the country".

Abizaid spoke of a big offensive, but after the Nov. 2 American election, with US and Iraqi forces doing "whatever's necessary to bring areas in Iraq under Iraqi control". Powell said the military will tackle the Sunni Triangle cities of Ramadi and Samarra before restoring order in nearby Falluja, which Powell called "the tough one".

The American Power: Before going further into the situation in Iraq, here is an interesting comment on the US power by Gautam Adhikari, a former executive editor of The Times of India, which appeared on Sept. 27 at the YaleGlobal Online service (yaleglobal.yale.edu): "America continues to occupy the world's leadership position. But it's a board chairman's job, requiring persuasion, the creation of consensus and discreet flexing of power, as well as popular acceptance. Its tasks cannot be performed by a lone maverick.

"If the United States wants to reassert itself as a widely accepted, and respected, leader of the democratic world, it will have to carry the world with it. Its efforts will fail if it continues to believe it can wield unilateral power indefinitely in a unipolar world".