|
Report: U.S. has completed 'basics' of plan to attack Iraq
|
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Friday, April 19, 2002
WASHINGTON Ñ The U.S. military has completed the framework for a military campaign against Iraq, defense sources say.
"U.S. Central Command already has the basics of a major campaign put
together," a report by the Washington-based Center for Defense Information
said. "Component commanders of each service are now at their forward
headquarters in the region with more than 1,000 war planners, logistics
experts and support specialists. This operations plan is being refined regularly and the target list is being validated and updated daily."
Defense sources said that amid an intense debate within the Bush
administration the U.S. Central Command has established a framework to
conduct major military operations against Iraq from neighboring Kuwait and
other areas of the Persian Gulf, according to Middle East Newsline.
The center said in its report that the United States will probably
launch an offensive against Iraq in the spring of 2003. The earliest the
U.S. military would be ready for an attack would be the "mid-fall of 2002."
The sources said the opposition by Arab countries to a U.S. military
campaign would require more time for any operation. They said the Arab and
Islamic opposition appears to have delayed plans to begin operations by the
end of the summer.
The report Ñ authored by [Ret.] Rear Adm. Stephen Baker, former chief
of staff for naval forces in U.S. Central Command in Bahrain, and research
analyst Michael Donovan Ñ said some of the requirements of a military
operation would include the deployment of up to 100,000 U.S. troops and
25,000 support personnel in Turkey and Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey would be the most likely staging grounds for
an offensive, the chief aim of which would be to locate and destroy Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction.
"The general expectation among U.S. military planners Ñ but not a
given Ñ is that Iraqi air defenses, command and control facilities, the
Iraqi army and Republican Guard would be rapidly overwhelmed and defeated
swiftly," the report said. "The threat of biological or chemical weapons
targeting Israel, neighboring countries, or U.S. troops will be a major
concern. Handling this threat will be one of the hardest, most
challenging missions in Iraq."
| 
