MOSCOW/CAIRO, 3 July 2003 — The United States is in danger of getting bogged down in another Vietnam in Iraq, a top Russian general warned yesterday, saying that armed resistance to US-led forces was not simple terrorism.
“The resistance in Iraq is not terrorism,” Deputy Chief of Staff Gen. Yury Baluyevsky told a group of foreign journalists. “God preserve us from Iraq becoming a second Vietnam for the Americans,” he said.
In the two months since US President George W. Bush declared victory in Iraq, US-led occupation forces have faced a wave of attacks that have killed 22 American troops and six British soldiers.
Baluyevsky expressed doubts that there were any members of the Al-Qaeda network in Iraq and whether the attacks were being carried out by diehards from the ousted Baath regime.
He also said he did not believe the United States would halt the resistance by killing ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
The Russian general remarked that the situation was so difficult that “the United States and Britain are putting pressure on other NATO members to get involved in Iraq.”
“I don’t envy the Polish,” he added, referring to scorching summer temperatures in Iraq that according to him could reach 60 degrees Celsius (140 degrees Fahrenheit).
Warsaw, a key European supporter of the United States during the Iraq war, has been given command of a multinational stabilization force in one sector of Iraq, alongside some 150,000 US and 12,000 British troops.
EgyptAir Wants to Fly Baghdad
Meanwhile, EgyptAir will begin talks with aviation authorities on Saturday about restarting its flights to Baghdad and wants to begin operating the route as soon as possible, the airline’s commercial director said yesterday. “EgyptAir is ready to immediately begin its flights to Iraq,” Saeed El-Zumor told reporters. “We have studies about the economics of operating the Cairo-Baghdad route which have confirmed the feasibility of operating this line economically.”
EgyptAir would discuss the resumption of Baghdad flights on Saturday with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Amman office, he said. That office had been authorized by IATA and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to consult with the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq about opening air routes to Baghdad, he added.
