Bush Meets War Planners for Showdown with Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, March 06, 2003

Bush Meets War Planners for Showdown with Iraq

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As the United States prepares for a military showdown with Iraq, US President George W. Bush met Wednesday with the general who would command a war in Iraq and other security advisors at the White House.

Army General Tommy Franks, the commander of US forces in the Gulf, was seen arriving at the White House accompanied by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Secretary of State Colin Powell and CIA Director George Tenet also attended the high-level meeting.

Franks arrived in Washington Tuesday from US Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida. He met with Rumsfeld at the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The United States and Britain have deployed more than 250,000 troops in the Gulf region along with dozens of warships and hundreds of strike aircraft. Rumsfeld signed orders over the weekend to send another 60,000 US troops to the region.

As France and Russia are leading an effort to block a vote on aUnited Nations Security Council resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Tuesday the vote was "desirable" but "not necessary."

Prior to his meeting with Bush, Franks told a press conference that his troops were ready for a war with Iraq if the president decides to take military action against the country.

"Our troops in the field are trained, they are ready, they are capable, and if the president of the United States decides to undertake a military operation with the coalition mentioned by thesecretary, there is no doubt we will prevail," Franks said.

Last week, he reviewed his war plan with commanders at his Gulfcommand post and met with senior officials of the Defense Department on Tuesday.

An imminent war with Iraq could begin with massive bombs and missiles, and the US troops plan to drop 10 times the bombs in thefirst days of strike than they did in the Gulf War over 10 years ago, US media quoted military officials as saying.

During the Gulf war, some 20 percent of the bombs the US military dropped were precision-guided, military officials said, adding that about 70 percent of the bombs to be dropped this time would be guided by lasers, satellites or video cameras.

Also on Wednesday, in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington area think tank, Powell said that Iraqi leader was given "one last opportunity" to disarm peacefully in the next few days."

Powell noted that the Iraqi president has not made "a strategicpolitical decision" to rid his country of weapons of mass destruction.

"One last opportunity to achieve it through peaceful means remains open to Saddam Hussein even at this late hour," Powell said. "We know for certain however that Saddam Hussein will be disarmed."

He repeated that the Bush administration's claim that Saddam's recent steps toward disarmament are "too little, too late gestures" designed to confuse and divide the international community.

"Once again, he started to play the game that he has been playing for the last 11 or so years to divert our attention, to throw chaff up to confuse, to cause us to lose our way in applyingour will," Powell said.

"From recent intelligence we know that the Iraqi regime intendsto declare and destroy only a portion of its banned al-Samoud inventory. It has in fact ordered the continued production of the missiles that you see being destroyed. And it has also begun to hide machinery it can use to convert other kinds of engines to power al-Samouds," he said.

Powell will head to the United Nations on Thursday to hold meetings with other diplomats before attending Friday's session ofthe Security Council, in which chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix will give his latest report on Iraq, according to the State Department officials.

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