i'm having serious difficulty believing that saddam would ever make the first strike.
saddam knows damn well that he can't beat the US army, let alone a joint attack.
with the manpower stationed in the Middle East there is no way that he could ever win that war.
now, in the unlikely event that he would make the first move, than the US and Britain can retaliate without doubt. and they will. it's merely self-defense from that point...
for the troop build-up..iraq doesn't have much to say about that because of the heavy sanctions it's under. so that wouldn't justify an attack from iraqi side at all.
last note: keep it down with making assumptions towards other members. you have no idea about the personal life of Q at all, that's quite obvious. so refrain from making comments about possible welfare checks and so forth.