Kurdistan Observer

The Bush administration's campaign to make Turkey the "diving board" -- or better yet, launch platform -- of an offensive against Iraq received a boost from the recent visit to Ankara of Under Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, the Defense Department's most publicly vociferous advocate of an attack on Saddam Hussein.

Wolfowitz seems to have removed some of Ankara's strongest reservations against supporting the action.

For example, U.S. strategists had originally planned to arm, train and support opposition groups including the Kurds in Northern Iraq, hoping to create a coup d'etat.

But the Turks were primarily opposed to building up the Kurds, fearing they might then back Kurdish militants in Turkey itself.

So the United States will not rely on any coup d'etat scenario. Next, Washington will not lay the groundwork for a "provisional government" which means that the United States will deal with whomever is left standing in Iraq once the smoke clears.

As United Press International reported exclusively July 10, the attack would go for Hussein rather than his military. Special Forces and heavy air attacks will seek "to pinpoint the whereabouts of Saddam in order to terminate him," a source said. As a senior Pentagon official said: "It's basically a cut at the top."