U.S. forces 'too small' to fight another Gulf War

WASHINGTON -- The United States does not have sufficient forces to fight another Gulf war, a leading general says, as tensions between Iraq and Kuwait reach a boiling point.

Gen. Anthony Zinni, former chief of U.S. Central Command, said Washington would have much greater difficulty fighting Iraq with the current number of available U.S. forces.

"I believe the military is too small for the current kinds of commitments that we have," Zinni told CNN. "And you either need to change the structure of the military and the size and the manning, or you need to change the strategy."

Zinni's assessment contrasted with that of Gen. Henry Shelton, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, who maintained that the Pentagon has sufficient number of forces to deal with future wars.

The debate over U.S. military preparations comes as Kuwait has mobilized its forces amid renewed Iraqi threats, according to Middle East Newsline. The Kuwaiti call-up sparked concern in international markets and the price of oil shot up to $31 a barrel.

In Washington, Pentagon officials said they did not detect any military movement in the area. "There's been a lot of hostile rhetoric coming out of Baghdad in the last couple of days, and people may have misread that as intentions," Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said. "But I'm not aware that there's been any movement of forces."

The state of U.S. military readiness has become an issue in the presidential campaign. Pentagon officials said Washington must be ready for tension in the Straits of Taiwan amid Chinese demands for reunification with the island nation.

The officials said China is modernizing its strategic forces, including its missile arsenal.