>>Britain Waves Off Largest Sea Force in Decades
Jan. 11
— By Peter Graff
PORTSMOUTH, England (Reuters) - The flagship of Britain's Navy, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, set sail on Saturday for possible war in Iraq at the head of the largest UK amphibious task force deployed since the 1982 Falklands War.
As flag-waving relatives and wellwishers packed the quayside, the carrier steamed out of Britain's Portsmouth harbor in chilly sunshine shortly after noon.
"I'm proud of him but still wish he wasn't in there," Felicity Devine, whose 26-year-old son Brad works on the Ark Royal's communications, told Reuters as she watched.
"You have to give them a bit of moral support," said pensioner Rosemary Watts who drove two hours with her husband to see the ships leave even though she had no relatives on board.
The 16-ship flotilla is officially sailing for long-planned naval exercises in the Far East.
But British officials say they have dramatically upgraded the force in case it is needed in Iraq, adding two battalions of elite Royal Marine commandos capable of deploying by helicopter.
In all, 5,000 sailors and 3,000 Marines will sail first to the Mediterranean and then on through the Suez Canal. They are due to visit ports in the Gulf in April but could deploy there earlier if necessary.
Ark Royal's flight deck has been cleared of fixed wing aircraft to make room for troop- carrying helicopters to transport the Marines. A second helicopter carrier, HMS Ocean, will join the task force around the end of January.
On board the Ark Royal, before leaving, ship captain Alan Massey was supervising last-minute preparations such as loading his two electric guitars and extra food for the troops.
"When you're carrying a Marine, you have to bring three times as much food as you would normally," he joked.
ANTI-WAR PROTEST PLANS
Public opinion in Britain is still lukewarm at best toward the prospect of war in Iraq, and the government has been cautious about announcing deployment plans.
But since the New Year, Britain has begun committing the bulk of the forces it would send to a war on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, seen by many as likely to be waged in the cool season of February or March if it is to be fought at all.
As the ships set sail in Portsmouth, hundreds of anti-war activists gathered in a London hall to voice their opposition to military action in the Gulf and to plan future protests.
"Hundreds of MPs would oppose military action in Iraq with no recourse to the United Nations," George Galloway, a member of the ruling Labour Party, told Reuters.
He and other anti-war Labor "rebels" were speaking at Saturday's meeting alongside some foreign personalities including former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella.
The Stop the War Coalition, which organized Saturday's meeting, said about half a million protesters would engulf London on February 15 -- along with 10 million across Europe, America and the Middle East -- in what they are billing as potentially the world's largest ever political demonstration.
In addition to the large seaborne strike force of Marines on board Ark Royal and Ocean, Britain is expected to send to the Gulf region most of its main ground force, the army's First Armored Division, from its bases in Germany.
London has already hired cargo ships to carry the division's armor, and has called up an initial 1,500 reservists, mainly medical personnel. (Additional reporting by Andrew Cawthorne and Opheera McDoom in London.)<<
abcnews.go.com
I have no idea why the Brits are doing this, since everybody knows that they believe that war with Iraq is unlikely, but in any event won't take place this year.
Maybe they are just trying to spoof Bilow.;^) |
