- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President
Bush has approved a war plan for Iraq to initially capture parts of the
country for footholds to thrust in 200,000 or more troops, U.S. officials
said on Saturday.
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- The officials, who asked not to be identified, stressed
the plan was flexible but that Bush had in recent weeks accepted Army Gen.
Tommy Franks' advice that smaller numbers of troops could not capture and
hold Iraq if invasion became necessary.
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- They confirmed a New York Times report in its Sunday
edition that any attack ordered by Bush and led by Franks, head of the
U.S. Central Command, would begin with "a rolling start" of smaller
numbers of troops while B-1 and B-2 bombers led an air campaign against
Saddam's palaces, air defenses and bases.
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- "Those are the right words -- a rolling start,"
said one of the officials. "I doubt you would see this all come at
once."
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- The officials said any attack was unlikely until early
next year unless Iraq refused to comply with Friday's unanimous U.N. resolution
ordering Saddam to end any chemical, biological and nuclear programs and
give arms inspectors unfettered access to his country.
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- The officials refused to discuss precise details but
said the air strikes would be spearheaded by the big bombers using 1,000-pound
(1,600 kg) satellite-guided bombs to destroy Saddam's power base. That
precision campaign would likely be shorter than the long campaign ahead
of the 1991 Gulf War.
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- ISOLATE LEADERSHIP, SPARE CIVILIANS
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- While seeking to isolate Iraq's leadership in Baghdad
and command centers around the country, air strikes would also try to spare
civilian neighborhoods, electric power and water supplies to Iraq's population.
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- At the same time, U.S. Special Operations troops and
Army and Marine Corps divisions would avoid getting bogged down in street-fighting
in cities.
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- No orders have been given yet to begin moving large numbers
of troops or to call up the more than 200,000 National Guard and Reserve
troops needed to support any invasion and protect bases at home and abroad
from possible "terrorist" reprisal. Some part-time military units
have been put on alert, officials said.
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- Franks himself will lead a battle command headquarters
element of more than 600 Central Command troops to Qatar for an exercise
later this month.
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- "I don't think it's any secret that we hope for
a collapse" of Saddam's regime and surrender of the military within
weeks of any attack, said one official. "We've made it clear -- and
will continue to do so -- that there is little profit for his military
to stand up and fight."
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- The Times, in a front-page story, quoted Pentagon and
military sources as saying the war plan was built on lessons learned in
Afghanistan, where the military first seized a major outpost south of Kandahar
to begin its successful assault on al Qaeda and the Taliban.
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- NO COMMENT FROM PENTAGON, WHITE HOUSE
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- Pentagon and White House officials flatly refused to
comment on the plan, although Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld himself
has repeatedly stressed that the United States had no quarrel with the
Iraqi people and would aim any attack at Saddam's core leadership.
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- "We don't comment on operational planning,"
said a White House official.
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- The U.N. resolution did not spell out any specific threat
of military attack against Iraq and the U.S. plan currently includes only
American and British troops, although the Bush administration hopes to
have other allies if Iraq violates the U.N. order. Officials said unmanned
spy planes and Special Operations troops were likely to be an important
element early in any campaign as the military moved to seek out chemical
and biological stockpiles and destroy a small number of Iraqi Scud missiles
left over from the Gulf War to prevent their launch against Israel or other
Iraq neighbors.
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- In addition to Army and Marine Corps ground troops, a
major force of aircraft carriers along with Air Force wings would be used
in the attack, according to the Times.
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- Officials declined to say where dozens of additional
warplanes sent to the region would be based, but they could be launched
from Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey.
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- Heavy bombers would also be launched from Britain and
a British air base on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
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