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U.S. Planning Massive Invasion Against Iraq in 2003: Report
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The
U.S. plans a massive attack on Iraq next year
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WASHINGTON, April 28 (IslamOnline &
News Agencies) - U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration, in
developing a possible approach for toppling Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein, is concentrating its attention on a major air campaign and
ground invasion, with initial estimates contemplating the use of
70,000 to 250,000 troops, The New York Times reported.
The
administration is focusing on military action against Iraq, the Times
reported, after determining that a coup would be unlikely to succeed,
and a proxy battle there using local forces would be insufficient to
bring a change in power.
Senior
U.S. officials told the daily that any offensive would probably be
delayed until early next year, allowing time to create the right
military, economic and diplomatic conditions.
The
Times reported that planning for the campaign included possible
extensive use of bases for American forces in Turkey and Kuwait, with
Qatar as the replacement for the sophisticated air operations center
in Saudi Arabia, and with Oman and Bahrain playing important roles.
The
military is planning a more traditional campaign than the one waged in
Afghanistan, according to the newspaper, with an approach resembling
the Persian Gulf war in style, and which would be fought with even
more modern weapons and more dynamic tactics.
"The
president has not made any decisions," a senior Defense
Department official told the daily. "But any efforts against Iraq
will not look like what we did in Afghanistan."
Until
recently, the U.S. administration had contemplated a possible
confrontation with the Iraqi leader this fall, after building a case
at the United Nations that the he was unwilling to allow the kind of
highly intrusive inspections needed to prove that he has no weapons of
mass destruction, the Times reported.
Now
that schedule seems less realistic. The current massive Israeli
military offensive in the West Bank has widened a rift within the
administration over whether military action can be undertaken without
inflaming Arab states and prompting anti-American sentiment throughout
the region.
According
to the paper, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld and their senior aides believe that Arab leaders
would publicly protest but secretly celebrate Hussein's downfall.
But
others at the State Department and the White House argue that efforts
to topple Hussein would be viewed by Arabs as a confrontation with
Islam, destabilizing the region and complicating the broader campaign
against Afghanistan.
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