Critics Warn Iraq War Will Provoke Increased Terrorism, Ethnic Conflicts and Global Economic Instability

Interview with Dilip Hiro author and journalist, conducted by Scott Harris

While American and British troops continue to pour into the Persian Gulf region, a diplomatic face-off is shaping up within the United Nations Security Council. The U.S., joined by Britain and Spain, has proposed a resolution that would find Iraq in material breach of U.N demands for disarmament, and to authorize war. But, France, Germany and Russia have put forward a competing draft proposal which calls for four more months of tougher weapons inspections and declares that military force is not yet justified. In the end, the U.S. must win nine votes from 15 member nations -- and no vetoes cast by France, Russia or China -- to gain authorization for war. A vote is expected by mid-March.

The Bush administration's timetable for invasion has been further complicated by the delay in Turkey's decision to allow some 40,000 U.S. troops to use their nation as a staging area from which to launch an invasion of northern Iraq. In spite of opposition to war by more than 90 percent of its people, the Turkish government submitted to U.S. pressure in exchange for $15 billion in grants and loans. The Turks have stated that in the event of war their military will use force to prevent the establishment of any independent Kurdish state.

Journalist and commentator Dilip Hiro, has been reporting on Middle East issues for more than three decades. In his latest book titled, "Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm," he warns that a U.S. invasion of Iraq will result in wide-scale human carnage, destabilize the Muslim world and seriously damage the global economy. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Dilip Hiro about his deep concern for the dangerous fallout which he believes will follow a Bush war against Baghdad.

"Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm," is published by Thunder's Mouth Press / Nation Books

Related links:

www.nationbooks.org

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