'A War of Bridges'
225,000 U.S. and British Troops Are Now Within Striking Distance
washingtonpost.com
IN NORTHERN KUWAIT -- Along Highway 80, the main road heading into Iraq, sand berms, concertina wire and guard posts surrounding military bivouacs stretch across the bleak Kuwaiti desert almost as far as the eye can see. What once were scattered outposts have multiplied and expanded so much that they have nearly converged into a single tent city, a still-building force representing U.S. military might poised to attack.
As diplomacy heads into its final chapter at the United Nations, U.S. officers here say the Bush administration has amassed enough forces around Iraq to march on President Saddam Hussein whenever the order comes. While the focus at U.N. headquarters in New York is on disarmament and Iraqi cooperation with weapons inspectors, the focus in the Persian Gulf region is on fine-tuning the growing U.S. military machine and getting ready for a war that appears increasingly imminent.
"We're ready," said Maj. Gen. Buford C. Blount III, commander of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, one of the major units here in Kuwait. "We've got everything we need. We're just waiting on the word, the decision from the president on whether we're going to do anything."
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War Plan for Iraq Largely in Place
Quick, Simultaneous Attacks on Ground and From Air Envisioned
washingtonpost.com
After more than a year of intense work, the Bush administration's plan for an assault on Iraq is essentially in place and is based on an unusual approach that envisions simultaneous air and ground operations combining the U.S. advantages in firepower, speed and precision, according to several people familiar with the strategy.
Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the chief of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, sat down in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar last week and reviewed the plan with his top Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force and Special Operations commanders. The conclusion of the top secret session, said a U.S. official based in the region, was that everything is ready once President Bush gives the order.
As military action draws nearer, Franks and the Pentagon are keeping the actual war plan closely held, publicly revealing only the vaguest of details about their intentions. But the broad outlines are now apparent, pieced together from congressional testimony and briefings by defense officials, the assessment of dozens of military analysts and relief experts privy to particular aspects of the operation, and from the military's deployments and high-profile exercises in the region.
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