For months now the Bush administration has announced its intention to launch a new war against Iraq. Washington's justification for an attack on Baghdad is based on the unproven allegation that Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction and may be developing nuclear capability. After Sept. 11, the Bush administration asserts that the U.S. must strike first at nations which could in the future provide such weapons to groups planning to attack America.

The New York Times reported on July 5 that a Pentagon planning document, leaked to the newspaper, calls for air, land and sea based forces to attack Iraq from three directions. In one scenario laid out in the document, an estimated 250,000 U.S. soldiers would invade Iraq from neighboring Kuwait. But while military planners are considering their options for an invasion of Iraq, major obstacles remain. European and Arab governments have voiced strong opposition to the plan, making it difficult to base U.S. troops in some key nations in the region. An American plan to use Iraqi Kurds as a surrogate force to overthrow Saddam Hussein has similarly run into trouble. Kurdish leaders remember well how the U.S. encouraged an uprising by their people during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. But when Iraqi troops brutally put down the rebellion, George Bush senior failed to intervene and thousands of Kurds were killed.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Retired Rear Admiral Eugene Carroll vice president emeritus of the Center for Defense Information, who discusses the Pentagon's war plans for Iraq and the likely fallout from such an invasion.

Contact the Center for Defense Information at (202) 332-0600 or visit their Web site at www.cdi.org