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| Iraq |
| More military plans |
| 2003-02-14 |
| Here's another set of 'war plans' disclosed publicly, just for Saddam. Under new US war plans, thousands of helicopter-borne troops and paratroopers would be flown deep into Iraq to seize oilfields, dams and banned weapons, and advance as far as Baghdad on the first day of the fighting, Pentagon officials and defence analysts said yesterday. President George Bush met his top field commander, General Tommy Franks, yesterday to review plans quite unlike those used in the last Gulf war. That began with weeks of aerial bombardment, but the US suspicion that Saddam Hussein will try to wreck his country rather than surrender, dictates that ground troops would be involved in the fighting on the same day as the air force or even before. "I think the targets will be aimed at decapitation," one US defence official said in a briefing. "You want to take away all his capabilities to respond with any WMD [weapons of mass destruction]. You don't want him to blow his dams, set fire to oilfields, or fire Scud missiles at neighbouring countries. You also want to put him immediately in a box in Baghdad and Tikrit." As ex-Washington quarterback Joe Thiesmann would say, this official is a genius, just like Norman Einstein. Brilliant analysis. The US currently has more than 130,000 troops in the Gulf, including some special forces already inside Iraq preparing airfields and communications. There will be six aircraft carriers including the Royal Navy's Ark Royal and 500 US air force planes in the region by the end of this month. Starting this week, 3,000 soldiers a day are being flown to the area on chartered civilian planes to ratchet up the pressure on Baghdad. Yet, despite the urgency of US pressure on the security council to give immediate backing for military action, it could be up to a month before some of the units and equipment central to the new strategy arrive in the Gulf. Depends on the tee times. The 101st Airborne Division and a paratrooper brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division, will secure oilfields or dams, but they were only just leaving their barracks yesterday. The 82nd Airborne is a light force and can fly its equipment into war, so it can be in position (probably in Turkey and Jordan) in a matter of days. However, the 18,000-strong 101st Airborne, the biggest air mobile force in the world on D-day, has sent its trademark helicopters by ship. Yesterday, as President Bush gave departing troops and sailors a morale-boosting send-off, the Apache gunships, the Black Hawks and Chinook helicopters were still on the dockside, encased in plastic. Navy officials said it would take three days to load the equipment on to ferries, which would take another three weeks to reach Kuwait and a further 28 hours to unload. It would take another few days to ensure they were in good working order. "The 101st are exactly what you want if you want to put a force deep inside Iraq, and hit all those targets," Daniel Gouré, a Pentagon consultant, said. "It may be we're looking at the middle of March before we're ready." However, mid March would coincide with a full moon, a further complication. US combat troops would prefer to launch their first attack on a dark night, which could necessitate a further delay. Pentagon officials insist that they are capable of launching an overwhelming attack at any time from now, arguing it is not essential that the 101st Airborne be used on the first day of the war. They point out that the division-sized 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, much of which came ashore in Kuwait yesterday, has its own helicopters fully capable of night attacks. See Saddam, we got options, all sorts of options. Those helicopters wrapped in plastic? Mebbe they'll show up early, mebbe they won't. There are also aviation units attached to the heavy infantry divisions which will attack from Kuwait, and the two special operations taskforces now operating in northern Iraq, mostly in Kurdish areas, have their own helicopters. The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, confirmed the presence of special forces in Iraq last week. Geoff Hoon, the British defence secretary, on Wednesday denied that the SAS had also crossed the border. However, given the threat of drastic countermeasures by Baghdad, defence officials and most analysts said the US would prefer to start the war with the maximum possible force on the first day, to overwhelm the Saddam regime, rather than to try a "rolling start" to the conflict. "We tried the incremental use of force in Kosovo, but we found it just stiffened Serb resistance," said a US official. "I don't think there's much talk of a rolling start any more, unless Saddam mounts pre-emptive action." Many pieces thave yet to fall into place in the US plans before that full-strength force, of about 200,000 troops - including more than 40,000 British troops - is ready. The USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier has just left the Philippines sea and will take another 10 days to reach the Gulf. The tanks of the 1st Infantry and 1st Armoured Divisions must be taken by rail to Turkey, whose parliament will only vote on whether significant numbers of US troops may enter country next Tuesday. Mr Gouré said the pace of deployment had been slower than expected because of the reluctance of Iraq's neighbours to become involved. That explained why Washington has pressurised the UN to give it backing. We'll pressurise them more if they don't. "Pushing the UN gives you more flexibility. You have slow-moving countries holding up deployments because they're waiting for a definitive statement from the UN, so you need to get over that to get into place," Mr Gouré said. |
| Posted by:Steve White |