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U.S.
Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln now stationed in the
Gulf
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WASHINGTON,
November 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - U.S. President George W.
Bush has settled on a war plan for Iraq that would begin with an air
campaign shorter than the one for the Gulf war, the New York Times
reported Sunday, November 10, quoting senior administration officials.
It
would feature swift ground actions to seize footholds in the country and
strikes to cut off the leadership in Baghdad.
The
plan, approved in recent weeks by Bush, calls for massing 200,000 to
250,000 troops for attack by air, land and sea.
The
offensive would probably begin with a “rolling start” of
substantially fewer forces, Pentagon and military officials say.
Bush,
speaking at a news conference on Thursday, November 7, did not discuss
the secret process for planning a possible war, but he noted that if
military action was required to compel Iraq to disarm, the U.S. and its
allies would “move swiftly with force to do the job.”
He
repeated his determination today, saying in his weekly radio address
that “Iraq can be certain that the old game of cheat-and-retreat,
tolerated at other times, will no longer be tolerated.”
The
military plan calls for the quick capture of land within Iraq, which
would be used as bases to funnel American forces deeper into the
country.
That
approach is intended to relieve some of the diplomatic pressure created
by massing troops and initiating attacks from neighboring nations,
including Saudi Arabia.
Under
the plan, American and coalition forces could operate out of such
forward bases in northern, western and southern Iraq, building on
lessons learned in Afghanistan, where the military seized a similar
outpost south of Kandahar, the New York Times reported.
As
the Pentagon puts the finishing touches on a plan of attack, White House
and State Department officials are discussing what one senior official
called a “seamless transition” from attack to a military occupation
of parts of the country.
Iraqi
scientists and local military officials would be encouraged to reveal
the location of hidden stores of alleged weapons of mass destruction, a
process Bush publicly encouraged from the Rose Garden on Friday,
November 8, when he told Iraqis that “by helping the process of
disarmament, they help their country.”
The
Times quoted one senior official, drawing on comparisons with the
American occupation of Japan in 1945, who said, “Our message will be
that the faster we find the weapons and arrest Saddam’s guys, the
faster they get some normalcy.”
Bush,
after several war-planning meetings with Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of American forces in the
Gulf, has decided that military action in Iraq would be carried out with
the large troop levels that Franks has consistently advocated.
Even
so, Bush can still maintain the formal position that no decision has
been reached because he has not yet ordered the nation to war.
Even
as the U.N. weapons inspectors prepare to fly to Iraq, the American
military is moving into a new phase of positioning logistical forces
that military officials say are significant indicators of a movement
toward war.
The
Army is loading tugboats, forklifts and other cargo-handling equipment
onto the Tern, a giant cargo ship in Hampton Roads that is bound for the
Gulf to prepare ports for the arrival of tanks and other armored
equipment, the Times reported.
But
the orders to send those heavy ground forces have not been given.
Pentagon
officials had been awaiting language from the Security Council because
the timetable for the inspection process will shape the schedule of
troop deployments and, ultimately, the start of any offensive that Bush
may order.
Heavy
equipment recently deployed to the Gulf will remain while inspections
get underway, officials said.
The
plan still has some moving parts, senior administration officials said,
but it calls for 200,000 to 250,000 troops - several Army and Marine
divisions, aircraft carriers and Air Force wings.
The
only ally expected to contribute significant ground forces is Britain,
with several thousand troops expected to participate.
Under
the plan, the air campaign would be less than the 43 days of the first
Gulf war, and probably under a month, military officials said.
In
the opening hours of the air campaign, Navy and Air Force jets,
including B-2 bombers carrying 16 one-ton satellite-guided bombs and B-1
bombers carrying 24 of the same weapons, would attack a range of targets
from military headquarters to air defenses, the paper reported.
Only
9 percent of the weapons dropped in the Gulf war were precision-guided;
this time, the figure would be well in excess of 60 percent, allowing
more effective bombing with fewer total aircraft, officials say.
The
campaign would quickly seek to cut off the country’s leadership in
Baghdad and a few other important command centers in hopes of causing a
rapid collapse of the government, officials said.
As
in Afghanistan, Special Operations forces would infiltrate Iraq early in
the campaign to designate targets, to destroy sites holding weapons of
mass destruction, and to seize other objectives to prevent Saddam from
slowing the assault, officials said.
The
targets of a bombing campaign would be the specific pillars of power
holding up Iraq’s government, like leadership headquarters and
Saddam’s presidential compounds.
“While
we would not want to kill many Iraqi soldiers, if they stupidly fight,
we will,” a senior military official said.
Ground
operations would be more likely to be woven into the opening stages of
the air war, with the aerial bombardment continuing “as long as we
find targets,” one official said.
The
“inside-out” approach of attacking centers of power first aims to
capitalize on the U.S. military’s ability to strike at long distances
and to maneuver forces rapidly to neutralize a large target, the paper
said.
One
important aim would be to wrest control of Baghdad from Iraqi forces
without getting bogged down in block-by-block urban warfare.
“The
generals in Iraq must understand clearly there will be consequences for
their behavior,” Bush said on Thursday.
“Should
they choose, if force is necessary, to behave in a way that endangers
the lives of their own citizens, as well as citizens in the
neighborhood, there will be a consequence. They will be held to
account.”
Bush
did not say so specifically, but veteran analysts of the Iraqi
government say Saddam is preparing thousands of civilian volunteers to
fill “martyrs’ brigades” and offer up their lives to bombs and
advancing troops, even though it is unclear how many would follow
through.
Some
of those volunteers would hope to slow the U.S.-led offensive by acting
as suicide bombers or fighting in neighborhood defense squads, but their
true strategic goal would be to generate anti-American feelings in the
region.
“There
is no consideration about them triumphing over an enemy, but a second
definition of victory,” said Yossef Bodansky, author of “The High
Cost of Peace: How Washington’s Middle East Policy Left America
Vulnerable to Terrorism.”
The
move to war has already raised concerns of reprisals in the U.S., and
senior Pentagon officials say they anticipate a mobilization of the
National Guard and Reserves equal to or larger than the 265,000 called
to active duty in the first Gulf war.
Most
of these reserve forces would be assigned to guard sites like military
installations, civilian power plants and airports, although some would
be assigned to guard bases overseas and certain specialties would be
required for the Iraqi offensive, the Times reported.
Several
units have been notified that they may be summoned to duty as early as
January.
In
another sign of the total force that may be involved in offensive action
and post-war occupation of Iraq, Rumsfeld has presented the White House
with a plan to inoculate as many as 500,000 service members against
smallpox.
Bush
has not yet decided on the vaccinations, which could have serious, even
fatal, side effects for a small percentage of those receiving the
vaccine.
The
timetable for a war is closely tied to the requirements laid out in the
Security Council’s resolution and to Saddam’s compliance.
The
last deadline is February 21, when inspectors are to report their
findings to the Security Council. Military planners say the longer
nights and moderate weather then are optimal for war, the paper added.
