- While Washington goes through the diplomatic motions
of moving a resolution on weapons inspection through the United Nations
Security Council, the Pentagon continues its systematic buildup of forces
in preparation for a military attack on Iraq.
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- On November 2, some 8,000 sailors and Marines set sail
for the Persian Gulf from San Diego with the seven-ship battle group of
the aircraft carrier Constellation. The battle group carries 72 Navy and
Marine Corps warplanes, which would be used in the round-the-clock bombardment
of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities that is expected to precede a ground
invasion. It also includes a guided-missile destroyer and two guided-missile
cruisers that would be used to launch cruise missiles at Iraqi targets.
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- The USS Harry S. Truman, another carrier, has been the
centerpiece of a huge war game off the North Carolina coast involving some
15,000 US military personnel. The scenario for the exercise is modeled
on an invasion of Iraq. The nuclear-powered Truman's battle group includes
up to 12 surface ships and submarines as well as eight aircraft squadrons.
It also carries the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is slated for
use in a ground war against Iraq. Soon after the conclusion of the war
game, this group too will prepare to head for the Persian Gulf and is expected
to arrive there in late December or early January.
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- While these carriers are ostensibly being sent to relieve
two others-the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS George Washington, which
are in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea respectively-it is widely
expected that the four will remain in striking distance of Iraq, awaiting
an order to attack. Pentagon planners have set January or early February
as the optimum period for launching a war in the region because of cooler
temperatures and longer nights.
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- "You could make a case that with normal rotations,
if you did the math, you could have up to four carrier battle groups deployed,"
Vice Admiral Timothy Keating, the commander of the Fifth Fleet, told the
New York Times. "Could they end up in the Arabian Gulf? Sure. It depends
on where we want them to go. It depends on what the president tells us
to do."
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- Three massive military cargo vessels-the USNS Bellatrix,
USNS Bob Hope and USNS Fisher-also headed for the Persian Gulf early this
week. The ships, among the largest in the US Navy, are nearly as big as
aircraft carriers and are capable of carrying tanks, helicopters and other
heavy equipment on their seven decks. A Navy spokesman refused to comment
on the final destination of the cargo vessels, declaring only, "It
is part of the repositioning of forces and equipment in support of the
war on terror."
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- Meanwhile, military officials announced last week that
part of the 2nd Marine Division will be deployed soon from Camp Lejeune
in North Carolina to eastern Africa, but they refused to say how many would
go or when they would depart.
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- Thousands of additional troops have been brought into
the region ostensibly as part of regularly scheduled training operations.
The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit is participating in the "Eager
Mace" military exercise in Kuwait, where the ruling family has cordoned
off a quarter of the country for use by the US military. The Marines are
practicing both amphibious landings and what the Pentagon refers to as
"Military Operations in Urban Terrain," i.e., preparing for house-to-house
fighting in Baghdad, a city of five million people.
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- Army troops, meanwhile, have been brought in for another
exercise, "Internal Look," and there is widespread speculation
that they too are being positioned for an attack on the Arab country. The
Army's 82nd Airborne, which would be used in an Iraqi invasion, is quietly
being withdrawn from Afghanistan in preparation for redeployment.
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- Kuwait is likely to serve as the main staging area for
an invasion. Advance elements of five American divisions are reportedly
already in the country preparing to erect quarters as well as communications
networks for the military force. Already, more than 9,000 US military personnel
are in the country, approximately 10 times the size of the US force that
was permanently stationed there in the aftermath of the first Gulf war.
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- Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah
stated this week, to no one's surprise, that the ruling family will allow
US forces to use Kuwait's bases in a war on neighboring Iraq. "They
are here in our bases.... How can they not use them?" he said. US
forces are already deployed at two Kuwaiti air bases, in the desert at
Camp Doha and on the outskirts of Kuwait City. Another base is being readied
in the south of the country.
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- Meanwhile, in nearby Qatar, preparations are being made
for the forward positioning at the Al-Udeid air base of the US Central
Command headquarters, which is normally based in Tampa, Florida. General
Tommy Franks, the commander of the Central Command, is scheduled to arrive
in Qatar in early December for another military exercise involving 600
headquarters members. It is widely speculated that once there, they will
stay. The base is already occupied by 2,000 troops and boasts a 15,000-foot
runway, the largest in the region.
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- Military planners have indicated that a ground force
numbering up to a quarter of a million troops may be assembled before an
attack aimed at conquering the country. Much of the manpower and war materiel,
however, is already in place in the Gulf as a result of the unceasing military
buildup in the region since the last war against Iraq in 1991. As a result
of this "prepositioning," the time it would take to bring together
an invasion force could be reduced to a matter of weeks, if not days.
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- More than 400 Bradley fighting vehicles, 300 tanks and
hundreds of artillery pieces, together with other ordinance, munitions
and vehicles are stored in scores of warehouses located in Kuwait, Qatar
and Bahrain, as well as on ships docked off Diego Garcia in the Indian
Ocean. The equipment at those four locations alone is sufficient for a
force of over 20,000, according to Pentagon planners.
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- Additional equipment is stored at the Incirlik air base
in Adana Turkey, just hours from Iraq's northern border, as well as in
Saudi Arabia.
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- Hundreds of US Air Force military transport planes together
with chartered civilian airliners are available to bring soldiers into
the region, "marry" them with the equipment and send them into
Iraq.
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- Between the Gulf states and Turkey, the US has stationed
more than 300 Air Force and Navy attack jets, as well as a full contingent
of electronic surveillance, radar and refueling planes. These aircraft,
together with the scores of carrier-based attack jets, have already begun
a low-intensity war against Iraq, regularly bombing both military and civilian
targets on the pretext of responding to Iraqi ground fire.
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- The attacks, carried out under the cover of enforcing
the "no-fly zones" imposed by the US and Britain in northern
and southern Iraq, are aimed at crippling the country's air defense system
in advance of an invasion. Pilots are also using the daily sorties to rehearse
for a full-scale bombing campaign.
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- The Pentagon has also quietly carried out key logistical
preparations for war. Air Force officials revealed last week that climate-controlled
shelters for B-2 stealth bombers are being dispatched to air bases in England
and Diego Garcia. The B-2 bombers are to play a leading role in pounding
Iraq's cities before a ground invasion. While the radar-evading bombers
were used both in the Balkans and Afghanistan, this would mark the first
time they were deployed to "forward operating locations" outside
of their home base in Missouri. The planes must be treated with special
coatings of paint and fiber in a controlled environment.
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- The Army, meanwhile, has begun equipping its engineering
units with new portable bridges that expand in retractable sections once
placed on the water. These devices would be used in the rapid movement
of troops across the Euphrates River to cut off Baghdad. In September,
the 1st Cavalry Division conducted extensive exercises at Fort Hood, Texas
to practice with the new equipment. Military officials have said that the
unit would be among the first deployed in an Iraqi invasion.
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- USA Today revealed last week that Israel is providing
substantial assistance to the US military in preparation for war. Citing
US military and intelligence officials, the newspaper reported that the
Israeli government is "helping train soldiers and Marines for urban
warfare, conducting clandestine surveillance missions in the western Iraqi
desert and allowing the United States to place combat supplies in Israel."
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- Both the Bush administration and the Sharon government
have remained silent on this collaboration, for fear that Israel's role
in the campaign will further inflame anger over US aggression throughout
the Arab and Islamic world.
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- USA Today reported: "Israeli infantry units with
experience in urban warfare during the Palestinian uprising helped train
US Army and Marine counterparts this summer and fall for possible urban
battles in Iraq, a foreign defense official said. The Israelis have built
two mock cities, complete with mosques, hanging laundry and even the odd
donkey meandering down dusty streets." The newspaper said that the
sites "far surpass US facilities," and that their locations are
classified.
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- Copyright 1998-2002
- World Socialist Web Site
- All rights reserved
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- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/nov2002/iraq-n06.shtml
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