Thirty Nations Join U.S.
In Coalition Against Iraq
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
Thirty nations have joined with the U.S. in a “coalition of the willing” to bring down Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and another 15 quietly have promised their support, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
Mr. Powell told reporters he had received assurances of open support in telephone conversations with the foreign ministers of Denmark and the Netherlands, but that Russian President Vladimir Putin had reaffirmed his opposition to war with Iraq in a telephone conversation with President Bush.
At the same time, Mr. Powell said Saddam Hussein so far had rejected Bush's demand that he leave Iraq, but that a number of countries were still trying to persuade the Iraqi president to go into exile.
Mr. Bush gave Mr. Hussein and his family 48 hours from late Monday to leave Iraq or face attack as the U.S. abandoned months of acrimonious diplomatic efforts. Military action against Iraq by the U.S. could start as early as Wednesday evening Eastern Standard Time.
“He has essentially dismissed the message,” Mr. Powell said. Asked when the U.S. may go to war against Iraq, the former Army general said he had “learned long ago not to make predictions.”
The State Department released a list of the 30 countries, one of which -- Japan -- was identified as only a post-conflict member of the coalition. Turkey was included, and Mr. Powell said even as the Turkish parliament debates a U.S. proposal to use Turkish territory for an invasion of northern Iraq, he was confident of Turkish cooperation in one form or another.
The parliament could vote on a bill outlining the level of military support to the U.S. on Wednesday or Thursday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. Lawmakers defeated the original troop deployment motion on March 1. Mr. Powell hinted that if the parliament accepts the U.S. proposal, the Bush administration might revive its offer of $6 billion in special economic assistance.
Early Monday, U.S. Army officials appeared only a day or two away from giving up on entering northern Iraq via Turkey. But the Turkish parliament could vote to reverse itself on Wednesday. The most important immediate effect would be to allow U.S. bombers to cross Turkish airspace.
Mr. Bush also reached out Tuesday to the leaders of Russia and China, two countries that resisted setting an ultimatum for using force against Saddam Hussein. But Mr. Putin and Hu Jintao told Mr. Bush they still preferred a U.N.-brokered solution.
No Spanish Combat Troops
As the U.S. continued to rustle up military and political support, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar ruled out sending Spanish combat troops to take part in a U.S.-led attack, but said he would deploy military personnel and equipment in a support capacity and offer warplanes to defend Turkey.
“Spain will not participate in any attack or offensive missions,” Mr. Aznar told Parliament, ending weeks of speculation as to whether Spain would back up its fervent diplomatic support of the U.S. by putting troops in harm's way.
The premier told the lower chamber that Spain had no military commitments beyond those already covered by bilateral treaties with the U.S. He said its support would include a hospital vessel, a mine-clearing unit, a team of chemical-detection experts, a frigate and an oil-tanker vessel, with personnel totaling about 900 people. If Iraq attacks Turkey, he said, Spain has offered NATO six F-18 warplanes to help defend that country, plus a Hercules C-130 refueling plane and a search and rescue helicopter.
Mr. Aznar took part in the Azores island summit Sunday that backed the call for early military action to disarm Iraq and oust Mr. Hussein. Spain had also joined the U.S. and Britain in co-sponsoring a doomed draft United Nations resolution seeking authorization for war to disarm Iraq. The Spanish leader's support for Washington has come despite polls showing a vast majority of Spaniards opposed to war in Iraq even with U.N. backing.
Spain's opposition parties are united in opposing any war on Iraq without U.N. approval. “This war will sow hate,” Socialist opposition leader Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in his response to Mr. Aznar.
Iraqi Refusal
Iraq's leadership on Tuesday condemned the U.S. ultimatum that Mr. Hussein and his family must leave Iraq or face war. Iraq's al-Shabab television, owned by Mr. Hussein's son Odai, said Tuesday the decision to defy the ultimatum was made in a joint meeting of the Revolution Command Council -- Iraq's highest executive body -- and the leadership of the ruling Baath party. Mr. Hussein chaired the session.
“Iraq doesn't choose its path through foreigners and doesn't choose its leaders by decree from Washington, London or Tel Aviv,” a statement read by the announcer said, according to the Associated Press.
Al-Shabab later reported that Mr. Hussein chaired a strategy meeting that brought together his son Qusai, who heads the elite Republican Guard and Defense Minister Sultan Hashim Ahmed, the chief-of-staff of the armed forces. The meeting reviewed war plans and military readiness, the television station reported.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer responded that “Iraq has made a series of mistakes, including arming themselves with weapons of mass destruction that have brought this crisis upon itself. This is the latest mistake Iraq could make. It would be Saddam's final mistake,” Mr. Fleischer said. “The president still hopes he will take the ultimatum seriously and leave the country.”
With the diplomatic door slammed shut, Mr. Bush's speech Monday evening amounted to all but a declaration of war, a word the president used several times. U.S. forces geared up for an air attack that could begin as early as Wednesday night Washington time. Some Pentagon officials had argued against giving Mr. Hussein a specific deadline, fearing that would give him time to reposition troops or launch a pre-emptive strike, but the president overruled them, officials said.
Senior U.S. military officials said that as soon as three days after the air war starts, a major ground offensive would begin from Kuwait, where as many as 170,000 U.S. and British forces are now amassed. Smaller special-operations missions likely would take place almost immediately.
Pentagon officials insisted their troops are ready to go, even though they still are scrambling to get a few crucial final pieces in place -- among them, Turkish permission to house U.S. troops at its military bases.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair argued his case Tuesday afternoon before the House of Commons, saying the outcome of the crisis will shape international relations for years to come. “It will determine the way Britain and the world confront the central security threat of the 21st century; the development of the United Nations; the relationship between Europe and the United States; the relations within the European Union; and the way that the United States engages with the rest of the world.”
“So it could hardly be more important. It will determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation,” Mr. Blair said.
Two junior ministers resigned in protest from Mr. Blair's cabinet on Tuesday, but his international development secretary, Clare Short, said she would vote for the government position and remain in her post; last weekend, Ms. Short accused the prime minister of being “reckless” in his conduct regarding the Iraqi situation.
Arab Governments, People Prepare
Meanwhile, in what appeared to signal the end of Arab efforts to avert a war, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa decided not to pursue a possible last-minute peacemaking trip to Iraq on Tuesday.
The region spent Tuesday bracing for war. Under orders from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, U.N. weapons inspectors and humanitarian workers scrambled to evacuate Baghdad. Diplomats and some foreign journalists also headed for Jordan, heeding administration warnings that were reiterated by Mr. Bush Monday night.
The collapse of diplomatic efforts prompted panic in the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq. In Irbil, a city of half a million 200 miles north of Baghdad and within easy artillery range of Iraqi forces to the south, hundreds of cars and trucks packed with people and their belongings jammed the main road heading north.
“It's just a precaution. I want to protect my family. We are really scared that Saddam may use chemical weapons like before,” said taxi driver Mahmoud Ahmad, 42 years old, who said he planned to rent a place to stay for just a few days. Many passengers stood about at taxi stands with their luggage, unable to find a car to rent out of the city.
U.S. Military Plans
Pentagon officials said that with about 230,000 U.S. troops in the Gulf region, they have more than enough combat power to topple Mr. Hussein. About 130,000 U.S. and 40,000 British ground troops already are in Kuwait, and the Air Force has about 500 attack, surveillance and logistics planes within striking distance of Iraq. The Navy has five carriers in the Gulf region, each with more than 50 attack planes on board. It also has dozens of destroyers and submarines capable of launching hundreds of guided missiles at Iraq on the opening night.
In Washington, Mr. Powell told reporters even if Mr. Hussein and “his immediate cohorts” leave the country, the U.S. and allied forces would still move in to occupy and disarm Iraq.
Gen. Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces in the Gulf, has been examining ways to prepare the battlefield for a coming advance from the south. In the past few days, coalition fighter jets in the southern no-fly zone have repeatedly targeted a cluster of mobile radar near an airfield in western Iraq. Under the rules of the no-fly zone, coalition planes are allowed to target any military equipment that poses an immediate threat to coalition troops.
Coalition forces also have bombed a series of communications nodes near Basra, the southern Iraqi city that will serve as the gateway to a U.S. invasion. Lightly armed special-operations troops, ferried into western Iraq via helicopters from Jordan, will play a critical role hunting mobile Scud launchers that U.S. officials say are capable of firing rockets loaded with chemical and biological weapons at Israel, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. officials are also concerned about recent intelligence that suggests Mr. Hussein has massed a significant number of artillery cannons in southern Iraq from which they might be able to rain down chemical and biological weapons on U.S. troops. The cannons almost certainly would be taken out in the early days of a war. But Pentagon officials are now looking at whether they might be legitimately hit under no-fly zone rules before the actual war begins, said a senior defense official.
-- Wall Street Journal reporters Greg Jaffe, Neil King Jr., Charles Goldsmith in London, Hugh Pope in Irbil, Iraq, and Guy Chazan in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this article.
Updated March 18, 2003 2:45 p.m. |
