WASHINGTON, September 22 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - In a closer step toward a U.S. attack on Iraq, a first draft of U.S. war plans for strikes on Iraq was released Sunday, September 22, as lawmakers expressed confidence of broad congressional support for a military campaign with or without UN backing.

Boldly-outlined Pentagon plans for a "narrowly-focused but extremely intense" military offensive against Baghdad, which Washington accuses of developing nuclear, chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, were made public.

The Pentagon has already begun choosing targets for U.S. warplanes and missiles, the size and shape of the troop deployments on the ground and a likely timeline for a U.S. invasion, the Washington Post reported.

Different from the 1990-91 Gulf War, waged by U.S. President George W. Bush's father, former President George Bush, the offensive is designed to be an attack on a government, not a country, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

"Our interest is to get there very quickly, decapitate the regime, and open the place up, demonstrating that we're there to liberate, not to occupy," a military planner was quoted as saying.

A small, fast-moving invasion force relying on Special Operations troops instead of conventional deployments of battalions, will likely carry out the U.S. offensive, which could include a simultaneous ground and air assault, the Post reported.

However, U.S. military experts have warned that any attack on Iraq 'will lead to thousands of civilian victims on the ground'. And top Iraqi officials declared that the U.S. 'will have to kill 25 million Iraqis to get to Saddam Hussein'.

Army General Tommy Franks, the head of the U.S. Central Command, which is currently waging the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, will ultimately be responsible for any U.S. plans for war, which must first be authorized by the U.S. Congress.

Bush on Thursday, September 19, presented a resolution to lawmakers that would grant him sweeping powers to oust Saddam, even if the United Nations declines to pass resolutions authorizing members to enforce disarmament mandates.

The Bush proposals have been criticized as open-ended and as failing to focus on a wide, UN-led effort to throw Iraq open to inspections and ultimately produce a regime change in Baghdad.

But Arizona Republican John Kyl insisted Sunday that the United States "cannot rely upon the United Nations necessarily to grant us the authority that we'll need."

"We can never subject our security interests to the United Nations or the Security Council of the United Nations on the grounds that somehow that's a moral objective force out there," said the senator.

Therefore, he said, "the Congress will authorize what the United States needs to do in our best interest."

Alabama Republican Richard Shelby expressed confidence that Bush's proposal would pass the bicameral U.S. Congress "by overwhelming numbers."

"And there are going to be a lot of Democrats that support it," he predicted.

Carl Levin, the Democratic chair of the Senate's Armed Services Committee, disagreed, saying that in its current form the resolution was impassable.

"Oh, it's much too broad. There's no limit at all on presidential powers. There need to be some changes," the Michigan senator told Fox News Sunday.

"It's a go-it-alone resolution, ultimately."

And though Washington would like the support and backing of its UN allies, "we should reserve the right to move along regardless of what the UN does," Senate Democrat Joe Biden, the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS.

"But I think it will matter to the president when and how and if he uses force, depending on what kind of support he has around the world."

Before any bullet is fired, however, it is crucial that the American public is fully aware of the consequences of military action, both human and financial, and the goals of that military action, the Democrats warned Sunday.

"The American people have no idea what the president knows, and that is he's going to have to stay in Iraq with thousands and thousands of troops ... billions of dollars," Biden said.