US Military Planners Favor February for Iraq Strike

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, September 21, 2002

US Military Planners Favor February for Iraq Strike

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United States military planners are focusing on February as the optimum time to begin a war against Iraq, and would rely greatly on defecting Iraqi units to topple Saddam Hussein, the Washington Times reported Friday.

Planners will also seek to design a force build-up that takes weeks, not the six months the exercise took in the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

Troops would be more widely dispersed so as not to create large base camps that could be more easily targeted by Saddam's mobile Scud missiles, according to senior US defense officials.

Two defense sources said that February would be the most likely time to strike, with hostilities over by no later than April. This would give the United States and its allies optimum fighting weather before the oppressive heat of the Persian Gulf spring and summer set in.

But they said the Pentagon has not adopted a final time frame or military option, and US President George W. Bush has not agreed with a plan. The presence of weapon inspectors from the United Nations inside Iraq could be a stumbling block and could prevent Bush from ordering an attack on his timetable.

The US military is also looking at ways to hit as many targets from the air as possible in the opening days of the campaign. Commanders will depend on Tomahawk cruise missiles and B-2 bombers,committing 10 to 16 of the stealth aircraft, each of which can drop more than a dozen 2,000-pound satellite-guided bombs on different targets.

Once Iraq's estimated 60-plus surface-to-air missile sites were destroyed, B-52s and B-1s would join the war, also dropping precision-guided weapons on critical command centers and Saddam's known headquarters.

The bombers would fly from the United States, the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and an air base in Fairford, England.

The senior defense officials said a war plan is emerging from US Central Command and the Joint Chiefs of Staff's Joint Staff, with input from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

"He is not afraid to offer his opinion," an official said of Rumsfeld. He said much of the debate centered on the size of the US force -- the number of ground troops, combat aircraft and Navy carrier battle groups. The officials said the US troop size would range from 75,000 to 250,000 soldiers.

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