Der Krieg III - Bush vs. Saddam - 500 Beiträge pro Seite

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Die irakische Strategie:
Überall und nirgends. Der "Heimvorteil": Kenntnisse de landschaftlichen und klimatischen Gegebenheiten und deren Nutzung.
Versuch des Zangeneinschlusses der amerikanischen Einheiten vor Bagdad durch Abschneiden der Logistik und verstärkte Truppenpräsenz im Rücken (Basra).

Die amerikanische Strategie:
Herauslocken bzw. Sichtbarmachen des Gegners durch scheinbare Schwäche. Mögliche Fortführung dieser Taktik: Die bisher nicht im Irak eingesetzten Einheiten (2/3 von 290 000 Mann) bilden ihrerseits eine Zange um die irakischen Truppen in Basra und den Bereich der gestörten amerikanischen Logistik. Die Logistik kann zunächst aus der Luft erfolgen, bei Erfolg der Taktik und genügend großer Stärke des Nachschubs auf amerikanischer Seite in Form einer Versorgungsbrücke entlang des Marschweges, womit zugleich die in Basra liegenden irakischen Truppen weiträumig von drei Seiten eingefaßt wären. Die offene vierte Seite kann von den Flugzeugträgern im Golf "bedient" werden.

Die entlang des Marschweges befindliche Linie kann nach Norden hin verlängert werden und eine zusätzliche Westfront bilden. Alternativ kann die amerikanische Truppe vor Bagdad schnell abgezogen werden, um den Ring um Basra enger zu fassen und den Feind hier auszuschalten und damit Bagdad zu isolieren, wozu die Truppen im Norden zusammen mit den kurdischen Einheiten sowie evtl. die parallel bestehende Westlinie hilfreich sein kann. Ein Ausfall der Truppen aus Bagdad ist dann nur in Richtung Süden möglich, wo sie von den nach Basra freigesetzten Truppen abgefangen werden können.

Die in Bagdad liegenden irakischen Truppen werden also Bagdad nicht verlassen.

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U.S. Says Suicide-Attack Threat Can Be Beaten
Sun March 30, 2003 03:52 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. and British forces can alter their methods to cope with the threat of suicide attacks, the head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Sunday.
"I think we can adjust our tactics and techniques to overcome that threat," General Richard Myers told BBC TV. "It`s just a reminder there`s some very desperate people out there and we`ve go to be on our toes."

He was speaking after an Iraqi army officer killed four U.S. soldiers in a suicide bombing on Saturday.

Asked about perceptions the war was dragging on longer than Washington and London planned, Myers said the forces could afford to take their time and warned the toughest part of the conflict was yet to come.

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Report: Rumsfeld Ignored Pentagon Advice on Iraq
Sun March 30, 2003 03:17 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly rejected advice from Pentagon planners that substantially more troops and armor would be needed to fight a war in Iraq, New Yorker Magazine reported.
In an article for its April 7 edition, which goes on sale on Monday, the weekly said Rumsfeld insisted at least six times in the run-up to the conflict that the proposed number of ground troops be sharply reduced and got his way.

"He thought he knew better. He was the decision-maker at every turn," the article quoted an unidentified senior Pentagon planner as saying. "This is the mess Rummy put himself in because he didn`t want a heavy footprint on the ground."

It also said Rumsfeld had overruled advice from war commander Gen. Tommy Franks to delay the invasion until troops denied access through Turkey could be brought in by another route and miscalculated the level of Iraqi resistance.

"They`ve got no resources. He was so focused on proving his point -- that the Iraqis were going to fall apart," the article, by veteran journalist Seymour Hersh, cited an unnamed former high-level intelligence official as saying.

A spokesman at the Pentagon declined to comment on the article.

Rumsfeld is known to have a difficult relationship with the Army`s upper echelons while he commands strong loyalty from U.S. special operations forces, a key component in the war.

He has insisted the invasion has made good progress since it was launched 10 days ago, with some ground troops 50 miles from the capital, despite unexpected guerrilla-style attacks on long supply lines from Kuwait.

Hersh, however, quoted the former intelligence official as saying the war was now a stalemate.

Much of the supply of Tomahawk cruise missiles has been expended, aircraft carriers were going to run out of precision guided bombs and there were serious maintenance problems with tanks, armored vehicles and other equipment, the article said.

"The only hope is that they can hold out until reinforcements arrive," the former official said.

The article quoted the senior planner as saying Rumsfeld had wanted to "do the war on the cheap" and believed that precision bombing would bring victory.

Some 125,000 U.S. and British troops are now in Iraq. U.S. officials on Thursday said they planned to bring in another 100,000 U.S. soldiers by the end of April.

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US banks on air power to open road to Baghdad
By Tim Ripley at Central Command in Qatar
Published: March 29 2003 22:02 | Last Updated: March 29 2003 22:02


Clearing skies over Central Iraq seem to offer America`s Middle East commander General Tommy Franks the chance he has been looking for to regain the initiative in the drive on Baghdad.

Hundreds of US and British aircraft, backed by US Army Apache gunships, have been pounding a force of some 6,000 Iraqi Republican Guard troops dug-in around Karbala since Thursday morning. According to military sources in Qatar, the air effort is gaining momentum. "We`re having rather a good day," a senior officer of the Royal Air Force said on Saturday. "Our boys love blue skies, we`re winning today."

This air offensive is intended to destroy a significant part of the Republican Guard`s tanks and artillery south of Baghdad to clear the way for Abrams tanks of the US 3rd Infantry Division, which are massing south of Karbala along with airmobile troops of the 101st Airborne Division.

The region south of Baghdad has been divided into so-called engagement zones or "kill boxes" and US, British and Australia warplanes are assigned to patrol them looking for any targets that might break cover. The pilots themselves are not looking for targets. Instead they are using United States Air Force Predator and US Army Hunter surveillance drones, as well as the E-8 Joint STARS radar aircraft that can detect the movement of tanks and other vehicles over hundreds of square miles.

Controllers aboard the JSTARS and at the US V Corps headquarters in the forward battle area monitor this stream of intelligence and assign targets to allied aircraft. By having aircraft constantly patrolling over the battlefield allied forces hope to successfully attack targets on the basis of fleeting or "time sensitive" intelligence. The pilots do not bomb solely on the basis of this information; it is still up to them to positively identify targets before releasing their weapons in case the intelligence is wrong or to prevent large scale civilian casualties.

While the USAF and RAF are putting some 600 warplanes a day into action over the Republican Guard south of Baghdad, the kill rate still appears to be painfully slow. In a repeat of the problems encountered during the Kosovo war, it appear that allied pilots are only so far hitting around a half-dozen tanks and a similar number of artillery pieces daily. The lush Euphrates and Tigris valleys provide plenty of cover, which the Iraqis are exploiting to hide their military hardware in villages, farm buildings and towns. The Republican Guard could have some 300 tanks and 800 field guns deployed to defend Baghdad which give some idea of the scale of the problem. One senior US officer has even suggested that it might take 30 days of air strikes to finish off the Republican Guard.

The fertile terrain in the Euphrates and Tigris valleys seems to be confusing the JSTARS radar surveillance aircraft that is central to the USAF`s war plan because of its ability to detect large numbers of tanks in real-time. At one point on Wednesday night JSTARS reported a column of 1,000 Iraqi tanks and armoured vehicles heading south from Baghdad. But US officers have since admitted these reports were false and that only a handful of tanks were moving into action.

The Iraqi air defences with the Republican Guard are also providing fierce resistance and hampering the efforts of low flying US attack helicopters and surveillance drones. At least one Predator was lost on Thursday over central Iraq and another on Saturday.

The 11th Aviation Brigade, the US Army`s main deep strike force, was effectively out of action for most of last week when it tried to attack the Medina division of the Republican Guard. One of its Apaches was shot down, another crashed and 33 were hit by heavy Iraqi anti-aircraft artillery fire in the attack. Only seven of the brigade`s Apache were ready for action on Saturday, although 11 are reported to be under repair. US Army commanders were encouraged when the 101st Airborne was able to launch a deep strike with its Apaches against the Republican Guard`s Medina division. This division started moving up to around Najaf after the sand storms lifted on Thursday.

The battle to defeat the Iraqi Republican Guard is proving to be a major test of US and British airpower. How it performs over the next week could well decide the outcome of the war.

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Iraqis will not rebel yet, warns dissident
By Roula Khalaf
Published: March 29 2003 4:00 | Last Updated: March 29 2003 4:00

On March 3 1991, members of a funeral procession passing through the holy Shia city of Najaf reported that popular uprisings were erupting in other Iraqi towns.

With Saddam Hussein humiliated by his defeat in the Gulf war and his local representatives weakened, the people of Najaf too rose in rebellion against the regime.

"Uprisings spread through word of mouth," recalls Abdelmajid al-Khoi, a Shia scholar and son of the late Ayatollah Sayed Abdul-Qasim al-Khoi, who was at the time the highest Shia religious authority in Iraq.

"Young men in Najaf took to the streets, they attacked portraits of Saddam Hussein, public buildings, Ba`ath headquarters. There was such chaos, looting, killings and reprisals."

The ayatollah, spiritual leader and firm believer in keeping the clergy out of politics, was desperate to inject some order into a rebellion by the Shia majority against the Sunni-dominated regime.

He sent his son, also called Abdelmajid, to show understanding for the opposition but caution against destruction of public property and indiscriminate killings in a holy city.

"But the people were so angry - the whole uprising lasted maybe 24 hours but 80 people died," says the 40-year-old Mr al-Khoi.

He was then dispatched to contact the allied coalition and seek advice on how to proceed. He knew former president George H. W. Bush had encouraged Iraqis to rise, yet he thinks to this day that only the repression of the regime and the resentment of the people could explain the rebellion.

"You can`t ask how or why. It just happened, the real reason was oppression, a volcano which we don`t know about until one moment it explodes."

When he first came across American soldiers, he was told they were getting ready to leave Iraq and were not concerned with the revolt. They suggested he travel to an allied military base near the Saudi border.

"That base was manned by the French. I said to them, `This is what`s happening all over. What are you going to do about it?`," he recalls. "They were nice, decent, and gave us an appointment the next day to see American commanders in Safwan. They said we`d be taken there by helicopter."

That meeting never took place. "They said it had been cancelled. We contacted Najaf and we heard that Saddam was back, he was already bombing Karbala [the nearby Shia town]," he says. "My family told me to get out of the country and not come back."

Mr al-Khoi took the advice. For much of the past decade, he has lived in London, heading the Khoi Foundation, a non-govern-mental body that runs schools, conferences and publications on Shia Islam.

Only now is the cleric preparing to return to Najaf, a town currently caught in heavy fighting between US and Iraqi troops.

Other exiled Shias question whether he will have any influence there after his long exile, but he apparently hopes to have a role in any potential new rebellion against the regime.

Mr al-Khoi plays down this week`s reports of riots in Basra, the second largest Iraqi city, echoing other Shia exiles` assessment that these were disturbances rather than an uprising.

He says exiled Shias have sent word that the population should remain calm and rise against the regime only once Baghdad is under siege and Mr Hussein`s loyalists in towns across the country feel isolated. "When their ties to Baghdad are cut, when they know they cannot receive reinforcements, they will be finished," he says.

Like most other exiled opposition figures, he says the lack of enthusiasm shown by Iraqis towards "liberation" by the US and Britain is understandable.

"The Shias were betrayed in 1991 and they paid a heavy price. People feel they could be betrayed again, that there is no guarantee," he says. "And if you celebrate, you could pay for it. Without news that Saddam is gone, they`d be afraid he might come back."

But he may be underestimating another important factor in the reaction of Iraqis. Nationalist and Islamist feelings may be combining to create opposition to a foreign invader in a country that has been battered by a decade of UN sanctions supported by the US.

Mr al-Khoi`s personal anger and bitterness help explain his own enthusiasm for the US-led military campaign. As he was making his way out of Iraq more than a decade ago, his father, brother and other members of his family were arrested by the regime, accused of organising the Najaf uprising.

Six family members arrested at the time have never been heard of again. "The family still has hope that they are in jail but I think they are dead," says Mr al-Khoi.

Despite a first week of war that has seemed more complicated than predicted, he is confident Iraq will soon embark on a more hopeful era in its troubled history. The US, he says, will not remain in the country for long and the attitude of Iraqis will depend on American behaviour.

"People ask whether the US will be accepted by Iraqis. I say it depends on how they act. We have to wait and see. But the first objective is to get rid of Saddam."

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British Capture Iraqi General in Basra
36 minutes ago

By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press Writer

A general from Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)`s army has been captured in southern Iraq (news - web sites) and is being pressed to provide strategic information, British officers said Sunday. An Iraqi official said 4,000 Arab volunteers have arrived, eager to carry out more suicide attacks against U.S. and British forces.


Four American infantrymen were killed in a suicide bomb attack in Iraq on Saturday, and on Sunday a man in civilian clothes rammed a white pickup truck into a group of U.S. soldiers standing by a store at their base in Kuwait.


Between 10 and 15 people were injured, said Lt. Col. Larry Cox, public affairs officer at Camp Udairi. He had no immediate information on the fate of the driver.


Gen. Tommy Franks, commander of the allied coalition, said he was unsure whether the two incidents were linked. He called the suicide attack "pure terrorism" and said his troops would henceforth exercise more caution in dealing with Iraqis.


Franks, at a briefing Sunday, also denied that he had asked the Pentagon (news - web sites) for more troops before invading Iraq. He sidestepped a question about whether the war might last into the summer.


Franks was responding to published reports that the requests of U.S. generals for more ground troops were repeatedly denied by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. Reports also quoted U.S. military officials as saying the lack of troops and weapons meant the war might last into the summer.


"One never knows how long a war will take," Franks said.


Asked about the status of Saddam Hussein, Franks said he did not know.


"I don`t know whether the leader of this regime is dead or alive," Franks said. "I have not seen credible evidence over the last period of days that this regime is being controlled from the top."


Group Capt. Al Lockwood, a British spokesman, said an Iraqi general was captured in the besieged city of Basra — the highest-ranking Iraqi prisoner of war thus far.


"We`ll be asking him quite politely if he`s willing to assist us to continue our operations against the paramilitary forces in Basra," Lockwood said.


Lockwood also said Royal Marine Commandos killed a Republican Guard colonel who apparently was sent to Basra to strengthen the resolve of the defense forces, who are encircled by British troops.


Further north, along the approach routes to Baghdad, some American units have paused while supply lines are shored up, but others were engaged in battles to clear the way for an all-out assault. U.S. and British warplanes have focused three-quarters of their strikes in recent days on Republican Guard positions defending the capital.


The U.S. Central Command said the latest targets hit by coalition aircraft included military facilities at the Abu Garayb Presidential Palace, the Karada military intelligence complex and the barracks of a major paramilitary training center, all in different sectors of Baghdad. Several telephone exchanges in the city also were hit Sunday, as well as a train loaded with Republican Guard tanks.


Although coalition commanders have been unflaggingly upbeat about the progress of the war, American soldiers in the field were jolted by news a car bombing Saturday in which an Iraqi soldier posing as a taxi driver gestured for help at a checkpoint near the city of Najaf, then blew up his car as soldiers approached. Four Americans from the Army`s 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division were killed; their names were not immediately released.


"It`s a shame they are doing that, because now we`re going to have to treat every civilian vehicle like it is hostile," said Staff Sgt. Bryce Ivings of Sarasota, Fla., a member of 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment.


"If we accidentally kill a civilian because they took a wrong turn and came at us, it will be on their (the Iraqi leadership`s) head."

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf contended at a briefing Sunday that several Iraqi civilians had been shot dead in their cars by coalition soldiers in a mood for vengeance after the suicide attack.

Lt. Gen. Hazem al-Rawi, a senior Iraqi defense official, said the suicide attack marked "the beginning of a long path of jihad for Iraqis and Arabs against the invaders." More than 4,000 volunteers have come from numerous Arab countries to participate in suicide attacks, he said.

Iraq`s state television reported that the Najaf bomber — identified as Ali Jaafar al-Noamani, a noncommissioned officer with several children — was posthumously promoted to colonel and awarded two medals by Saddam Hussein. His family reportedly was awarded the equivalent of $34,000, a fortune in Iraq.

Iraq`s vice president, Taha Yassin Ramadan, indicated the attack was part of a coordinated effort to thwart the invasion force, and he raised the specter of terrorism on U.S. or British soil.

"The day will come when a single martyrdom operation will kill 5,000 enemies," Ramadan said. "We will use any means to kill our enemy in our land and we will follow the enemy into its land. This is just the beginning."

Fighting continued in several areas, notably around the southern cities of Nasiriyah and Basra.

Al-Sahhaf, the information minister, said Iraqi tribesman had shot down an Apache helicopter near Basra, killing the pilot. U.S. Central Command said it had no information of such an incident.

In central Iraq, thousands of Marines pushed north Sunday in "seek and destroy" missions, trying to clear the route toward Baghdad that they have nicknamed "Ambush Alley."

The Marines were ordered to question each Iraqi civilian they passed, then hand out ration packets as a gesture of goodwill. One unit took its chaplain along to oversee the aid distribution.

U.S. and British warplanes launched bombing raids early Sunday near Karbala, south of Baghdad, targeting Iraqi fuel storage depots.

Wing Commander Andy Suddards, who led a British Harrier raid on one of the depots, said one goal was to cut the fuel supply chain for Republican Guard tanks.

"The visibility was good and I saw the bang," Suddards said.

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Rumsfeld Defends Pentagon`s Iraq War Plan
1 hour, 1 minute ago

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - The fiercest fighting and gravest danger lie ahead for U.S. troops as they advance toward Baghdad, and the Pentagon (news - web sites)`s plan will result in victory, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Sunday.


While he said he did not know when the war might be over, "It`s going to end with the Iraqis liberated," Rumsfeld said in between appearances on the morning talk shows.


He acknowledged that resistance "has been in pockets quite stiff. It`s going to get more difficult as we move closer to Baghdad," where President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)`s most trusted and battled-tested Republican Guards are waiting.


"I would suspect that the most dangerous and difficult days are still ahead of us," he said.


Rumsfeld denied published reports that he had rejected requests from U.S. war planners for additional troops.


"The planners are in the Central Command. They come up with their proposals and I think you`ll find that if you ask anyone who`s been involved in the process from the central command that every single thing they`ve requested has in fact happened," Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday."


The plan developed by Gen. Tommy Franks is "a good one and it`s working. I think the people who are talking about it really are people who haven`t seen it," the defense secretary said.


Franks, speaking Sunday at a daily briefing of the U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, denied that he had asked the Pentagon for more troops before invading the country but sidestepped a question about whether the war might last into the summer.


"One never knows how long a war will take," Franks said.


Rumsfeld would not say when the fighting might cease.


"We`ve never had a timetable. We`ve always said it could days, weeks or months and we don`t know. And I don`t think you need a timetable," Rumsfeld said on ABC`s "This Week."


He also took on critics of the war strategy who contend the United States underestimated Iraqi resistance.


"It`s been going on nine days. It`s a little early for post-mortems," Rumsfeld said.


U.S. and British forces now top 290,000 in the Persian Gulf. The Army`s 4th Infantry Division is being sent, its first supplies expected to arrive in Kuwait within days, and armored cavalry troops and gun-mounted Humvee utility vehicles could be deployed sooner than scheduled.


Despite complications from Saddam`s arming of paramilitary groups, his preparations for street warfare in Baghdad and in other cities and Iraqi soldiers` fake surrenders, Pentagon defense leaders remained confident about the pace of the invasion. They said the deployment of 100,000 additional forces to Iraq (news - web sites) was planned months ago.


The military has moved to shore up protections at U.S. checkpoints and other sites after a suicide bomber posing as a taxi driver asked American troops for help and then blew up his vehicle Saturday, killing himself and four soldiers.


Iraq`s vice president warned suicide attacks would become routine.


"A terrorist can attack at any time at any place using any technique," Rumsfeld said. "So there`s no question but that a terrorist that`s willing to die can kill other people. ... Is it going to change the outcome? Not a chance."

Warplanes have dropped some 6,000 precision-guided munitions, Pentagon officials said, and 675 Tomahawk cruise missiles have been launched from the air and sea — just seven missing their targets because of apparent mechanical malfunctions.

Tomahawk launches from the eastern Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea were temporarily suspended because some missiles fell into Turkey and Saudi Arabia on their way to Iraq.

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Iraqis Not Stopping Supplies, Franks Says
Sun March 30, 2003 08:08 AM ET

AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - U.S. Central Command chief General Tommy Franks said on Sunday that fierce Iraqi resistance and guerrilla raids were not stopping supplies moving from Kuwait to frontline troops in central Iraq.
Franks told a news conference at U.S. war headquarters in Qatar that "bands of thugs" had occupied cities like Basra, Nassiriya and Najaf, south of Baghdad, and were trying to disrupt supply lines running 250 miles to the front.

"They have put themselves in a position to terrorize Iraqis in these villages and cities and to be able to move up along the lines of communication to attempt to interdict our supplies," he said. "They have not been able to do this."

"These bands of thugs that operate inside these population centers face more and more of our capability every day," he said. "The supplies are moving now, and every day we see more and better connection between our forces and the local Iraqis in each one of these cities."

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Arabische Freiwillige sickern ein


D er Leiter des Deutschen Orient-Instituts sieht eine ganz neue Gefahr auf die alliierten Truppen zukommen. Hunderte arabische Freiwillige gingen nach Irak, „um sich im Kampf gegen Amerikaner und Briten zu opfern. Mit jedem Kriegstag werden es mehr“, sagte Udo Steinbach der „Bild am Sonntag“.

„Diese hochmotivierten Kämpfer, die von Zivilisten kaum zu unterscheiden sind, werden zwar nicht den Krieg entscheiden – aber in der Schlacht um Bagdad spielen sie eine wichtige Rolle“, so Steinbach. „Sie haben Kalaschnikows und Handgranaten. Außerdem können sie Panzerabwehrwaffen vom irakischen Regime bekommen.“

Nach Ansicht des Nahostexperten wecken die Bilder von Bombenangriffen und zivilen Opfern im arabischen Fernsehen „die Bereitschaft, in den Heiligen Krieg zu ziehen. Der Zorn auf die westlichen Kreuzfahrer breitet sich in der gesamten arabischen Welt aus – in allen Bevölkerungsschichten.“

30.03.03, 12:04 Uhr (focus)

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CIA jagt Saddams Vertraute



A merikanische Geheimdienst-Spezialisten sind in irakischen Städten offenbar der Führungsriege rund um Bagdads Diktator auf der Spur. Wie die „Washington Post“ am Samstag berichtete, töteten die Scharfschützen und Sprengstoff-Experten bei gezielten Anschlägen bereits „mehr als eine Hand voll“ Spitzenleute.

Seit mindestens einer Woche gehen die CIA-Spezialkommandos demnach gemeinsam mit Sondereinheiten der US-Armee gegen Mitglieder des engeren Kreises um Saddam Hussein, gegen Funktionäre der regierenden Baath-Partei und gegen Kommandeure der Republikanischen Garden vor. Einige der Explosionen in Bagdad seien wohl auf von diesen Spezialisten gelegte Sprengsätze zurückzuführen, hieß es in der Zeitung.

CIA und Verteidigungsministerium wollten den Bericht nicht kommentieren. Eine Pentagon-Sprecherin sagte lediglich: „Wie wir schon gesagt haben, haben wir Spezialeinheiten im Norden, Westen und Süden des Landes.“

Funktionäre der Baath-Partei waren offenbar auch Ziel eines US-Angriffs am Freitagabend. Das Versammlungsgebäude der Partei nordöstlich von Basra, in dem sich rund 200 Mitglieder aufhielten, sei zerstört worden, teilte das US-Militär mit. Über Opfer wurden keine Angaben gemacht.

29.03.03, 20:51 Uhr (focus)

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U.S. Leaders Defend War Plan as Troops Dig In
Sun March 30, 2003 04:11 PM ET



By Nadim Ladki
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. aircraft applied relentless pressure on Iraqi positions in and around Baghdad on Sunday as U.S. military leaders fended off growing criticism of their war plans and insisted the campaign was still on course.

Faced with much stronger than expected opposition from regular and irregular forces loyal to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, U.S. troops dug in south of Baghdad, apparently in no rush to assault the Iraqi capital until air strikes and artillery had ground down its defenders.

Round-the-clock air strikes hammered Baghdad as the U.S. military sought to break the elite Republican Guard units entrenched in the sprawling city`s outskirts.

With casualties mounting, three U.S. troops were killed and a fourth was injured when a Marine helicopter crashed in southern Iraq. A U.S. spokesman said the helicopter was not brought down by hostile fire but provided no further details. A British soldier was also killed in fighting near Basra.

As night fell on the 11th day of a war aimed at ousting Saddam, a huge fire raged close to the city center.

It looked as though Iraqis had set alight an oil-filled trench, sending plumes of thick, black smoke billowing into the sky in a bid to hamper U.S. and British air strikes.

In Washington, the U.S. military said it had bombed the main training site for Iraqi Fedayeen paramilitary forces in eastern Baghdad, a presidential palace, an intelligence complex and surface-to-air missile sites.

In other developments, the U.S. military said 10 to 15 troops were injured on Sunday when a truck drove into a group of soldiers just outside a U.S. military base in Kuwait. The identity of the attacker was not immediately known but the incident followed a suicide attack inside Iraq on Saturday in which four U.S. soldiers died.

British Royal Marine commandos captured an Iraqi general and killed another senior officer in clashes with Iraqi paramilitary units south of Basra on Sunday, a British military spokesman said.

But British troops have still not tried to capture the southern city of 1.5 million, where more than a week of fighting has disrupted food and electricity supplies and forced many civilians to flee the city.

President Bush, backed by Britain, launched the war to overthrow Saddam after saying he refused to give up chemical and biological weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. Iraq said it has no such weapons and none has so far been found, although invading forces have found several thousand chemical warfare suits in captured Iraqi positions.

Iraq said on Sunday its military had destroyed two U.S. or British tanks and nine armored personnel carriers over the past 24 hours and shot down five unmanned drone reconnaissance planes. There was no immediate British or American reaction.

DEATH TOLL

Officially, the United States have lost at least 39 dead and 104 injured with 17 listed as missing since the war began. Britain has lost 24 dead. There is no accurate account of Iraqi military or civilian casualties.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected criticism that he launched the war with insufficient ground strength, but he predicted that Iraqi resistance would stiffen even more as U.S. troops approached Baghdad.

Some U.S. leaders and advocates of the war had predicted that many Iraqi units would not fight and that U.S. troops would be welcomed as liberators. But such rosy scenarios have not for the most part come to pass.

Rumsfeld, facing scrutiny over his influence on a war plan that involves far fewer troops than the number used in the 1991 Gulf War, flatly denied reports that he had rejected advice from Pentagon planners for substantially more men and armor.

"That is not true," Rumsfeld said. "I think you`ll find that if you ask anyone who`s been involved in the process from the Central Command that every single thing they`ve requested has in fact happened."

Gen. Richard Myers, head of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the campaign was going to plan, with U.S. and British forces already in control of 40 percent of Iraq, but he gave a clear signal that there would be no swift ground assault on the Iraqi capital.

The aim before going in, he said, was to isolate the Iraqi leadership and cut it off from the rest of the country.

"We`re not going to do anything before we`re ready," Myers said. "We`re certainly not going to do anything to put our young men and women in danger precipitously. We`re also not going to put Iraqi civilians in danger as well. We`ll be patient. We`ll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter."

U.S. commander General Tommy Franks, who is bringing an extra 100,000 troops to the Gulf in April, insisted there was no "operational pause" in the U.S. and British invasion.

But U.S. officers and soldiers in units south of Baghdad told Reuters they had orders to dig in for at least two weeks to give U.S. air power and artillery a chance to pound Iraqi defenses. Saddam has vowed to make a bloody stand and inflict huge losses on invaders in street fighting.

An Iraqi military spokesman, hailing Saturday`s suicide bomb that killed four U.S. troops, said 4,000 willing "martyrs" from across the Arab world were already in Baghdad to fight.

Radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad said it had sent would-be suicide bombers to Baghdad to help Iraqis fight U.S. and British troops and planned to send more.

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U.S. Marines Find Chemical Suits in Iraq
Sun Mar 30, 1:35 PM ET

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - U.S. Marines discovered chemical suits, masks and nerve gas antidote during a raid on buildings used by Iraq`s 11th Infantry Division in the southern city of Nasiriyah, U.S. Central Command said Sunday.


After securing the two buildings Saturday, the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment also found a large cache of weapons and ammunition in addition to more than 300 chemical suits, 300 gas masks, atropine injectors, two chemical decontamination vehicles and other chemical decontamination devices.


Col. Ron Johnson said the regiment will take samples to experts for identification and then destroy the weapons and equipment.


"We found so much ammunition that it would be too dangerous to the city to blow it in place. We are going to have to transport it somewhere safe," Johnson said.


Saturday`s raid also turned up more than 800 rocket propelled grenades; over 2,000 rounds of 7.62 mm rifle rounds; 5,000 rounds of 14.5 mm rounds; over 10,000 12.7 mm machine gun rounds; mines; over 300 rounds of various mortars; and several hundred artillery rounds.


Also Saturday, British troops south of the city Basra found a stash of Iraqi training equipment for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare — including a Geiger counter, nerve gas simulators, gas masks and protective suits, according to British press reports.


One chemical found in the raid on the Iraqi ordnance facility was marked "sarin" — a dangerous nerve gas — and appeared to be a simulator used to test if sarin was in the atmosphere.


British troops also found nerve gas antidote, gas masks, plastic suits and other materiel.


Last week, Marines found chemical suits and masks, weapons and ammunition inside a hospital in Nasiriyah. U.S. Central Command said the hospital was being used as a military staging area for Iraqi paramilitary forces.


That operation seized more than 3,000 chemical suits with masks, Iraqi ammunitions, and military uniforms as well as a T-55 tank on the compound. Marines also took 170 people prisoner.

[PeachBlossom]

Franks acknowledges ups and downs of war one week after promising shock and overwhelming force
2 hours, 40 minutes ago

By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Writer

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar - A week ago, U.S. Gen. Tommy Franks introduced the world to the war against Iraq by saying his campaign would use never-before-seen shock, surprise and overwhelming force to oust Saddam Hussein from power.
On Sunday, after a week in which coalition troops faced stiffer-than-expected resistance, supply problems, guerrilla warfare and an apparent new Iraqi campaign to use suicide bombings, Franks allowed that war has its "ups and downs."
At a press briefing here, the U.S. commander running the war stressed that 11 days into Operation Iraqi Freedom, coalition forces had made "remarkable progress."
They had degraded Iraq`s command and control facilities, secured Iraqi oil fields, advanced to within some 60 miles (100 kilometers) of Baghdad and delivered humanitarian aid to the south, he said.
But he acknowledged it came at a cost — at least 37 Americans and 23 British troops have been killed — and that "Lots remains to be done."
"The days ahead will see ups and downs. The ups and downs of war," he said. But he added: "We don`t need to remind ourselves that the outcome has not been, is not and will not be in question."
A week ago, his tone was more upbeat. Breaking a four-day public silence, he addressed the world in his first wartime briefing March 22 by outlining what he said would be "a campaign unlike any other in history.
"A campaign characterized by shock, by surprise, by flexibility, by the employment of precise munitions on a scale never before seen and by the application of overwhelming force," he said.
On Sunday, Franks ticked off nine major achievements so far, but found himself answering questions about whether he had enough troops to do the job or whether coalition forces were stalled on the outskirts of Baghdad for an "operational pause."
He denied published reports that the requests of U.S. generals for more ground troops were repeatedly rejected by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. And he sidestepped questions stemming from reports quoting U.S. military officials saying the war might last into the summer.
"One never knows how long a war will take," Franks said.
Franks appeared angry at the start of the briefing, responding to growing public questions about the U.S. preparation for the war in light of strong resistance met by troops in south and central Iraq.
"We`re in fact on plan," he said. "And where we stand today is not, in my view, only acceptable, but truly remarkable."
Franks also rejected reports that his forces had been forced to stop at the outskirts of Baghdad because of supply problems and unexpected Iraqi resistance.
"There have been some pundits who have indicated we may be in an operational pause," Franks said. "This simply is not the case."
He stressed that the timeline of his war plan was his own, and explained that he started the war when he did because he saw evidence that the Baghdad leadership intended to destroy its southern oil fields.
"And since we had a plan that enabled us to either do air operations first or ground operations first or perhaps special operations first, we simply put the mosaic together in a way which you have seen unfold," he said.
He said his plan`s chief characteristic was flexibility and adaptability. "It gives us the way and the force to respond to opportunities we see," he said.

[PeachBlossom]

30.03.2003 16:52

Optionen

Türkei erwägt Einmarsch in Nordirak

Der türkische Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan erwägt einen begrenzten Einmarsch in Nordirak für den Fall, dass die Kriegssituation dort außer Kontrolle gerät.

Der türkische Ministerpräsident Recep Tayyip Erdogan sagte der „Bild am Sonntag“, sollte deutlich werden, dass „die Truppen der USA diese negativen Entwicklungen nicht verhindern können, ist es möglich, dass die türkischen Streitkräfte die Verlegung einer begrenzten Anzahl von Truppen für einen Einsatz in einem begrenzten Gebiet in Betracht ziehen.“ Dies würde mit den USA abgesprochen.

Erdogan schloss aber eine Besetzung Nordiraks aus: „Die Türkei hat keine derartigen Ambitionen und hatte sie nie gehabt.“ Die Türkei habe auch keine geheimen Absichten, daher seien „Argwohn und Unterstellungen unberechtigt und deplatziert“, wird der Ministerpräsident zitiert.

Die Europäische Union hatte der Türkei zu verstehen gegeben, dass ein EU-Beitritt Ankaras gefährdet sei, wenn die Türkei in den Krieg in Irak eingreifen würde. Deutschland und Belgien haben gedroht, den NATO-Einsatz zum Schutz des Landes in diesem Fall abzubrechen.

(sueddeutsche.de/AP)

[PeachBlossom]

Tehran denies involvement in Iraq war
By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran
Published: March 30 2003 19:21 | Last Updated: March 30 2003 19:21


Kamal Kharrazi, Iran`s foreign minister, on Sunday rejected Washington`s allegations on interference in Iraq through an opposition Shia Muslim group and warned the US-led forces against more suicide attacks.


Donald Rumsfeld, US defense secretary, warned on Friday that hundreds of Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia Muslim forces operating inside Iraq would be treated as enemy forces, although they had “not yet” been hostile.


“Mr. Rumsfeld`s remarks are baseless...The Badr Brigade has no relations with Iran,” Mr. Kharrazi told a press conference yesterday. “Badr Brigade now has made no decision to interfere in the conflict.”

The Iran-based Badr brigade, the armed wing of the main opposition Shia group called Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri), is said to be trained and equipped by Iran`s Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Mr. Kharrazi also said that Iraqi people`s dissatisfaction with Baghdad regime wouldn`t mean they would accept “a regime imposed by aliens”.

Warning that “tougher days are awaiting invading forces”, he said, “Invaders cannot feel secure in the land they have been occupying. What we have witnessed in Palestine is being repeated in Iraq and that is suicide attacks.”

An Iraqi officer killed four US soldiers on Saturday near the Shia-dominated holy city of Najaf.

Iran, which has taken an official non-involvement policy, has condemned the war against neighboring Iraq, insisting that disarmament of Baghdad regime should have happened under the UN banner.

Mr. Kharrazi advised US and Britain to get out of the “big quagmire” of Iraq by stopping the war and trusting the issue to the UN.

Iran, accused by Washington of sponsoring terrorism and trying to acquire weapons of mass destruction, is concerned that it might be next on the list of counties to be dealt with in the anti-terror war.

Analysts believe that the clerical establishment through its high influence on main armed opposition Shia and Kurdish groups would be able to sabotage US plans in Iraq should threats against Islamic system continue and its interests are ignored.

Iran is encircled by US presence in almost all its land and maritime borders. An American-supported government in Iraq is a further threat to the survival of the Islamic regime, which faces growing domestic dissatisfaction over slow pace of reforms.

Mr. Kharrazi underlined that Iran “wouldn`t support a US-established regime”, adding that the next Iraqi government must be based on people`s votes under a UN initiative.

[PeachBlossom]

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U.S. Troops Ready for Major Assault
21 minutes ago

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - U.S. troops are ready to launch a major assault against Iraqi Republican Guard forces protecting Baghdad, but the commanding general may wait for pressure to build on Saddam Hussein before striking, war planners said Sunday.



"We have the power to be patient in this, and we`re not going to do anything before we`re ready," said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "We`ll just continue to draw the noose tighter and tighter."


Myers and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said coalition ground forces were closing in on Baghdad from the south, west and north. The U.S. troops south of Baghdad were within 49 miles of the capital, Rumsfeld said, and reporters traveling with those units said several were on the move again Sunday.


More significantly, Myers said days of relentless airstrikes had reduced some Republican Guard units to less than 50 percent of their prewar capacity. Armed reconnaissance elements of the Army`s 3rd Infantry Division also have fought with Republican Guard units, Myers said.


U.S. war planners want to be sure the Republican Guard — the best trained and equipped of Iraq`s military — are significantly softened up before coalition troops meet them in ground fighting. During the 1991 Gulf War, for example, U.S. ground forces didn`t attack until Republican Guard units had lost 50 percent to 60 percent of their capacity.


American commanders have a target percentage in mind for the degradation of the Republican Guard before launching the ground assault, a senior defense official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Officials will not discuss the goal to avoid revealing their strategy.


Parts of the Army`s 82nd Airborne and other units moved into south-central Iraq over the weekend to help protect supply lines that have come under attack by Iraqi forces. Other U.S. fighting units, including members of the 3rd Infantry Division, moved closer to the Republican Guard forces between them and Baghdad.


The U.S. military has detected signs that reinforcements are being sent to some front-line Republican Guard units, while other Iraqi units are pulling back, closer to Baghdad, the senior official said.


A military official said coalition aircraft focused 60 percent of nearly 800 strike sorites Sunday on three Republican Guard divisions around Baghdad: The Hammurabi, to the north, west and south; the Medina, to the south; and the Baghdad, centered southwest of the capital around Kut.


"I imagine their morale is a little low right now because they`ve lost a lot of their force," Myers said. "Their fighting capability is going down minute by minute, hour by hour. There`s not going to be much left to fight with."


Myers and Rumsfeld, making the rounds of the Sunday television talk shows in Washington, would not say when the ground assault on Baghdad would begin. Both predicted such fighting could be brutal.


"It`s going to get more difficult as we move closer to Baghdad," Rumsfeld said. "I would suspect that the most dangerous and difficult days are still ahead of us."


The attack on Baghdad, population 5 million, might not be a siege of the city, Myers said, saying the term "conjures up, sometimes, some really bad images."


"It will not be a sort of siege that people have thought about before," Myers said. "We have plans for several different contingencies."


Pentagon officials continued Sunday to raise the possibility that Iraq could use chemical weapons.


"There is no doubt that they have chemical weapons, that they have weaponized them, they have them in artillery shells," Myers said. "They probably have other means of delivery."


He cited the discovery by coalition forces of protective gear and nerve agent antidotes left behind by Iraqi military and paramilitary forces. Myers said the discoveries indicate that Iraqi troops planned to wear the protective gear while using chemical weapons.

Marines searching a compound used by Iraq`s 11th Infantry Division in the Euphrates River city of Nasiriyah on Saturday found more than 300 chemical protection suits and gas masks, U.S. Central Command reported. The Marines also found atropine injectors — antidotes for nerve agents — and chemical decontamination vehicles and devices, Central Command said.

Earlier last week in the same city, Marines found more than 3,000 chemical protection suits in a hospital used by Iraqi paramilitary forces as a base.

Also Saturday, British troops south of Basra found Iraqi training equipment for nuclear, biological and chemical warfare — including a Geiger counter, nerve gas simulators, gas masks and protective suits, according to British press reports.

[PeachBlossom]

US Special Forces take fight to fundamentalist terror group

Kurdish front

Jason Burke in Biyara
Sunday March 30, 2003
The Observer

A hundred American Special Forces soldiers led thousands of Kurdish peshmerga fighters in a massive assault on positions held by hardline Islamic militants yesterday as fighting in the north-east of Iraq entered its second day.
Air strikes and artillery pummelled the high mountains above the villages where the Ansar-ul-Islam group, linked to al-Qaeda, established their bases 18 months ago. Pockets of fighters were yesterday putting up stiff resistance, despite an intensive bombardment lasting more than a week.

Hundreds more militants had escaped, raising fears that although the attack has successfully reclaimed the six villages, the group has been dispersed rather than eradicated.

Early yesterday afternoon militants pinned down American soldiers for several hours before being killed. Around a dozen peshmerga fighters have died and dozens more have been injured. On Friday The Observer watched as waves of peshmerga pushed the militants out of the villages in the foothills of the snowy mountains that line Iraq`s border with Iran, and up into the rocky slopes above. It was unclear whether the Iranians had the ability or the will to stop them despite Tehran`s deployment of thousands of troops along the frontier.

`They are up hiding in the hills or have crossed into Iran,` said Nehro Awad Ahmed, 43, a peshmerga commander. `This battle is far from over.`

The failure to close the border raises fears of a second Tora Bora, the battle in Afghanistan in 2001 where bin Laden and hundreds of his disciples escaped an assault on a mountain top cave complex by fleeing into Pakistan.

All through the night the hills had echoed to the sound of rockets, bombs and machine gun fire. Streams of tracer bullets had streaked across the sky as Ansar fighters in caves and rock bunkers attempted to hold off renewed attacks and defend themselves against the American AC130 gunships and strike jets. Ordnance dropped by bombers lit up entire mountainsides. At dawn the peshmerga, climbing across grassy slopes burned brown by cluster bomb strikes, moved forward again.

The exact number of casualties in the battle were unclear but at least six peshmerga fighters are thought to have been killed and dozens more injured. The total is expected to rise. One Ansar fighter blew himself up with a grenade after appearing to surrender. Senior Kurdish military sources claimed that at least a hundred Islamic militants had been killed, mainly by American airstrikes on caves where they took refuge on Friday night. However only a handful of bodies have been recovered, reinforcing concerns that the bulk of the group`s fighters may have escaped. They may well include at least 150 militants who fled to join Ansar after being forced out of their bases in Afghanistan by the US-led campaign there that followed the 11 September attacks.

The militant, writing in Kurdish, calls on all Muslims to continue `jihad operations`, and informs his relatives that he has left money to pay off his creditors.

Ansar-ul-Islam conducted Kurdistan`s first suicide bombing earlier this year. Eight days ago a suicide bomber from the group killed an Australian journalist at a checkpoint near the town of Halabja, about 10 miles from Biyara, the site of a gas attack by Saddam Hussein`s forces in 1998 which killed 5,000. A hardcore of Ansar-ul-Islam was trained by associates of bin Laden in Afghanistan.

Ansar`s connections to bin Laden date back to 2001 when leaders of the group travelled to Afghanistan. Bin Laden is thought to have sent several hundred thousand dollars and emissaries to broker the truce between the various factions. The militants, who subscribe to a Taliban-style interpretation of Islam, have imposed this on the local populace, forcing men to pray, women to wear veils and banning television sets.

Around Biyara peshmerga soldiers were eating and resting for the first time in 36 hours. Many, mistaking The Observer for a Western soldier, ran to thank America for their support: ` Zhor bash, (very good),` said Barim Ahmed Saleh, a peshmerga fighter. `Thank you very much for all the missiles.`

Destroying Ansar is seen as essential to to allowing the long-delayed northern front against Saddam Hussein to be opened. Now several thousand peshmerga, and a substantial number of special forces, will soon be freed up for an attack further south.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main parties who govern the de facto state in the north of Iraq, have been willing partners with the US in the battle against Ansar. However the PUK have been less willing to fight a second more moderate group of 1,000 Islamists based in the village of Khurmal.

Khurmal was named as a location for a chemical weapons factory by Colin Powell in his speech to the United Nations in the lead up to the war. After a missile strike on the headquarters of the group earlier this week killed 60 and injured many more, the PUK agreed an amnesty and allowed the group to leave the area. Abul Razzaq Mirza, a senior PUK minister, said there was `no evidence` of terrorist activities by the group. No evidence of the involvement of either the Khurmal-based group or Ansar-ul-Islam in chemical weapons has emerged.

Nor has anything emerged that links Ansar-ul-Islam with Baghdad. Hawks at the White House claimed that the group were connected to Saddam`s regime, though they failed to provide any evidence.

Outside Biyara yesterday morning a young man`s body lay stretched out beneath a blossoming tree on a slope above a rushing mountain stream. A hole in his checked shirt marked where the bullet had struck his chest. One arm, stiff with rigor mortis, pointed up at the clear spring sky and the vapour trails left by the American jets.

The body was that of Sherko, an 18 year old from the nearby village of Tawela. Sherko was a PUK spy who had infiltrated Ansar. He was discovered and forced into a confession that was filmed by the militants. Sometime late last week, as the offensive by combined Kurdish and American forces got underway, Sherko was hauled from Ansar`s prison in Biyara, marched to the edge of the orchards that fill the slope above the stream and shot.

Yesterday morning his parents knelt by the side of his body. They had last seen him in the Ansar jail seven months ago.

`These [Ansar] are brutal people who have come here to kill in cold blood,` said Jabar Hama Said, 43, Sherko`s father. `They are terrorists. Islam says you must not kill captives. My son is a martyr and we are proud of him.`

Sherko`s mother said nothing. She merely knelt over her son`s body to kiss his cheeks. `I wish it was me not him,` she sobbed. For a moment there was quiet. Then it was broken. In the hills behind her heavy machine guns and artillery thudded and roared once again.

[PeachBlossom]

Man who would be `king` of Iraq

Oliver Morgan on Jay Garner, the hawkish head of the Pentagon agency that will be handling lucrative reconstruction deals

Sunday March 30, 2003
The Observer

President, viceroy, governor, sheriff. It is difficult to know what to call Jay Garner, the retired US general who will run Iraq if and when Saddam Hussein is deposed.

The `call me Jay` 64-year-old would prefer `co-ordinator of civilian administration`. That`s the bland description of his job heading the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, the Pentagon agency preparing to govern Iraq`s 23 million people in the aftermath of war, provide humanitarian support and administer the lucrative business of reconstruction.

Garners credentials are intriguing. He has a fine record in United Nations-backed humanitarian operations, playing a senior role in protecting the Kurds of northern Iraq from Saddam after the 1991 Gulf war in Operation Provide Comfort. Crucially he is now out of khaki, a vital counterpoint to General Tommy Franks, who is likely to act as a US military governor. On the other hand, he is closely linked with the group of hawks centred on US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld (who gave him his latest job), his deputy Paul Wolfowitz and Vice President Dick Cheney, who are as keen to bypass the UN in the aftermath of war as they were before it.

He appears to share their strong pro-Israeli views. He has been involved in formulating their more controversial defence policies, including the US national missile defence system that has done much to undermine the 1972 anti-ballistic missile treaty. The company he now works for is a missile specialist and makes money from systems deployed in Israel and by coalition forces in Iraq.

With this background, the aid agencies are equivocal about his role. Phil Bloomer of Oxfam says: `Iraqis should run Iraq and in the transition the UN should be in charge, not the US. A worst-case scenario would be to put in charge of Iraqi reconstruction someone from the US or UK who was linked to the arms or oil industries.`

Garner`s view of the effectiveness of the US military in a humanitarian role was made clear during Provide Comfort. The army, he said, was the merciful instrument in shaping future humanitarian operations. But Provide Comfort was carried out under very different circumstances. The war it followed was mandated by UN Security Council resolutions, as was the humanitarian mission.

Today, relations between Garner and the UN appear strained, as was clear at a frosty meeting earlier this month, when he explained his role before departing for Kuwait. `There was no co-ordination or consultation,` said one UN official. `That would be inappropriate from the UN`s point of view because its operations are autonomous; we do not need to consult with the US. But also from the US position, because it is common knowledge that they want to go it alone without the UN.`

Despite movement towards a UN role in reconstruction through a new resolution extending the Oil For Food programme, officials have deep suspicions about US intentions, particularly those of Garner`s friends. `Powell [pro-UN Secretary of State] has already lost the battle,` said one. `It is clear that Rumsfeld, Cheney and the rest have the ascendancy and they think, having gone it alone in the war, they should get the benefit of being seen as liberators. Garner is their man. He is a true believer.`

Beyond the strong Pentagon links of an ex-military man, Garner`s political constituency is with the Republican right. His contacts with the Vice President go back to Provide Comfort, when Cheney was defence secretary to the first Bush, while his relationship with Rumsfeld has been sealed through recent close co-operation on missile defence policy.

These links have provoked unease among companies outside the US, which believe that the Americans want to carve up reconstruction contracts among themselves, regardless of any UN role. A subsidiary of Cheney`s old company, Halliburton, has recently secured a deal to put out oil well fires. Halliburton, and Bechtel, another company with strong Republican links, were on a US-only shortlist for a major $900m reconstruction contract that will be overseen by Garner`s office.

After strong lobbying from UK companies, the DTI agency Trade Partners UK managed to get a British secondee into Garners office, and Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt lobbied the US government to include the British.

But contractors say ORHA is not responding to requests for contact. `We have worries about this,` said one. `There is a huge row going on behind the scenes about Halliburton and Bechtel winning deals, and we can`t talk to the people on the ground.`

But there are wider concerns, particularly Garner`s work with Rumsfeld, his commercial activities, and views on Israel. Rumsfeld headed the Commission to Assess the Ballistic Missile Threat to the United States, which reported to the US Congress in 1998. The Rumsfeld Commission singled out three countries threatening the US with ballistic missile development - North Korea, Iran and Iraq - thus defining the axis of evil that underpins the US`s pre-emptive strategy.

Garner served on Rumsfeld II, which effectively extended missile defence into space. He was involved in the deployment of Patriot missiles in Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, and was commander of the US Army Space and Strategic Defense Command from 1994 to 1996.

When Patriot`s effectiveness was questioned at a 1992 congressional hearing, Garner dismissed critics, saying 40 per cent of engagements in Israel and 70 per cent in Saudi Arabia were successful.

However, Ted Postol of the Massachussetts Institute of Technology, who gave evidence at the hearing, said: `We believe that these figures are too high, and that it may be the case that zero engagements in Israel were effective. Garner may have been involved in covering up the deficiencies of the system.`

Garner is now commercially involved in the latest version of Patriot, currently deployed in Iraq. He is president of SY Coleman, a missile systems contractor that gives technical advice and support on the running of the programme. Israel is now protected by a new system called Arrow. SY Coleman is involved here too: Garner helped oversee development work, a programme that Postol estimates was 80 per cent funded by the US.

Jack Tyler, SY`s senior vice-president for business development, confirmed it had worked both on Patriot and Arrow. However, he said, there was no procurement, sale or royalty to the company from the systems, only advisory fees.

Tyler dismissed suggestions that Garner was hired because of his defence contacts, saying his role was that of a strategic planner. SY has strong relationships with the then US government. In 1999 it won a Star Wars contract worth up to $365m to provide the US forces with advice on space and missile defence. The SY website lists a series of government logistics and R&D contracts.Meanwhile, SY was bought by another company, L-3 Communications, last year. L-3 is the ninth-largest contributor to US political parties in the defence electronics sector. Last week it was awarded a $1.5bn contract to provide logistics services to US special operations forces.

Garner`s links with Israel are not limited to missile programmes. In October 2000 he put his name to a statement that said that `Israel had exercised remarkable restraint in the face of lethal violence orchestrated by the leadership of a Palestinian Authority`.

The organisation behind the statement was the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, which includes Cheney and Richard Perle, another arch-hawk, among its advisers past and present.

Only last week Perle resigned from the chairmanship of a key Pentagon committee advising Rumsfeld, after it emerged that he had struck a deal with bankrupt telecoms company Global Crossing under which he stood to receive up to $725,000. The deal is being reviewed by a government group that includes Defense Department officials.

There is no suggestion that Garner might feel similarly compromised by past association and some find the anti-Garner arguments overstated.

Eric Schwartz of Washington`s respected Council on Foreign Relations think-tank says: `I am not sure this is a US go-it-alone guy. He understands the critical importance of it not being the military doing the nation-building.` Schwartz believes that, after an interim period, the UN will take control of critical issues in Iraq`s future, such as drawing up a constitution and overseeing elections.

It will be for Washington to decide whether the Sheriff of Baghdad wears a US or a UN star. His record suggests he would be equally happy in either. Its how he uses the badge that counts.

[PeachBlossom]

Rumsfeld`s Role as War Strategist Under Scrutiny
Sun March 30, 2003 12:38 PM ET

By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld`s influence in crafting the plan for the Iraq war is facing scrutiny as it becomes apparent the campaign will not be as quick or easy as some U.S. leaders had predicted.

Some retired top officers are voicing in public an opinion harbored in private by some current military officers -- that Rumsfeld`s bold vision of a sleeker, high-tech military prompted him to take unnecessary risks in the size and nature of the force sent to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who commanded an infantry division in the Gulf War before overseeing anti-drug policies under former President Bill Clinton, said in an interview with Reuters, "At the end of the day the question arises: why would you do this operation with inadequate power?"

"Because you don`t have time to get them there? But we did. Because you don`t have the forces? But we did. Because you`re trying to save money on a military operation that will be $200 billion before it`s done?"

"Or is it because you have such a strong ideological view and you`re so confident in your views that you disregard the vehement military advice from, particularly, Army generals who you don`t think are very bright."

Rumsfeld has clashed with some top officers, particularly in the Army, during a two-year tenure as defense secretary. He has sought to reimpose strict civilian leadership over a uniformed military that some conservatives believed had run the show at the Pentagon during the Clinton administration.

The flash point has been his quest to bring what he calls "transformation" to the military. He has a vision of a military liberated from its Cold War past, with smaller, swifter forces, high-tech weapons, air power and special operations.

FAVORED SMALLER FORCE

In developing a war plan to use in Iraq, Rumsfeld rejected the advice of many top officers that he field a force more in line with the half-million troops used in the 1991 Gulf War. Rumsfeld favored a much smaller force. Analysts said Rumsfeld and war commander Gen. Tommy Franks reached a middle ground, fielding a force about half the size of the 1991 one.

"Rumsfeld basically cut in half what the Army said that it needed for the war. Basically, he has the view the Army is too big, too heavy, too cumbersome," said analyst Lawrence Korb of the Council on Foreign Relations, who served as assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration.

Rumsfeld told reporters on Sunday morning that he believed the war plan was an excellent one, that is was in its early phase and that his armchair critics did not know what the war plan was. He said Franks was doing a "truly outstanding job."

"He`s had a lot of success," Rumsfeld said, noting that the U.S.-led coalition had captured southern oil fields and a port and that there had been no massive humanitarian crisis or droves of refugees.

He said many of his critics had expected the kind of air war that led off the Gulf War but after months of diplomacy and a last 48-hour ultimatum for Saddam, the decision was to go for tactical surprise by starting the ground war first.

In an interview with ABC`s This Week, he said the war plan had the backing of all members of the joint chiefs of staff and the White House.

He said although some 300,000 U.S. and British troops were now in the region compared with 500,000 troops sent to the 1991 Gulf war, many of the earlier force were not used and the Iraqi army was "35 to 40 percent as capable as it was back in 1991."

He scoffed at suggestions by critics that he forced the slimming down of the force sent to Iraq this time, saying this was "fiction."

`A POWERFUL PERSONALITY`

Military analyst Jack Spencer of the Heritage Foundation said Rumsfeld is facing the huge task of bringing change to an institution, the military, that resists it mightily.

"In terms of how Rumsfeld has influenced everything, certainly he has demanded that war planners think outside the box a little bit, and come up with some new ways to conduct this mission," Spencer said.

"He`s a powerful personality. And powerful personalities, you either love them or hate them. Not many people are indifferent to Rumsfeld," Spencer said.

Military analyst Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute said one must look at the development of the war plan in the context of Rumsfeld`s "transformation" quest.

"What we have now is a division between the military guys who want to say that once you`ve made the decision to go to war, you turn it all over to us: timing, numbers, whatever. The reality is that`s not the way it works. It has never been the way it works," Goure said.

Critics have pointed to a series of faulty assumptions they believe were made by the civilian leaders of Pentagon. Among these are: that the Iraqi military would collapse quickly once hostilities began; that there would be mass surrenders of Iraqi troops; that the "shock and awe" aerial bombardment would convince the Iraqis that resistance was futile; and that the Iraqi people would embrace invading Americans as liberators.

Rumsfeld said on Sunday he had never held out much hope of a mass surrender by Iraqi forces. "I never did. Tom Franks fashioned a plan that ... assumed a long, difficult task, but was prepared to take advantage of quicker victory.

[PeachBlossom]

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Immer noch: US the allmighty?


<Kommentar

Die Zeit für Rechthaberei ist vorbei

Auch wer den amerikanisch-britischen Kriegskurs ablehnt, muss unter den gegebenen Umständen der westlichen Koalition den schnellen Sieg wünschen. Die Alternative wäre ein Triumph der totalitären Ideologien und eine Katastrophe für die gesamte westliche Welt

Von Richard Herzinger für ZEIT.de


Der Irak-Krieg wird gegen die große Mehrheit der Weltöffentlichkeit geführt. Entsprechend niedrig ist die Toleranzschwelle für Fehlschüsse und Fehlentwicklungen der amerikanisch-britischen Kriegsstrategie, die das Leiden im Kriegsgebiet verschlimmern und verlängern. Darauf spekuliert die irakische Diktatur. Je länger der Krieg dauert - und als "lange" müssen unter diesen Umständen schon zwei Wochen gelten - und je mehr Opfer folgerichtig zu beklagen (und im Fernsehen zu sehen) sind, desto mehr wachsen die Chancen für das Saddam-Hussein-Regime, auch diesen Ansturm zu überleben.

Das wirft grundsätzliche Fragen über die Fähigkeit des Westens auf, in Zukunft überhaupt noch Kriege zu führen. Die "Echtzeit"-Präsenz der Medien legt die Grausamkeit jeder Kriegsführung unmittelbar offen und entmystifiziert die Vorstellung vom "sauberen" High-Tech-Krieg. Dieser Mythos aber war die letzte Variante, mit der den auf friedlichen Ausgleich eingestellten, offenen westlichen Gesellschaften die Legitimität kriegerischer Einsätze überhaupt noch plausibel gemacht werden konnte. Nach dem Irak-Krieg wird es selbst den Amerikanern schwer fallen, ihre eigene Bevölkerung noch einmal auf einen solchen blutigen Kraftakt einzuschwören. Das könnte man getrost als Zivilisationsfortschritt begrüßen. Wenn da nicht die Tatsache wäre, dass zahlreiche Regime und terroristische Bewegungen auf der ganzen Welt an diesem Zivilisationsfortschritt weder teilhaben noch teilhaben wollen.

Gemäß ihrer riesigen waffentechnologischen Überlegenheit könnten die USA ein Land wie den Irak binnen kürzester Zeit zur Aufgabe zwingen. Doch für eine westliche Demokratie, selbst wenn - oder gerade weil - sie so übermächtig ist wie die Vereinigten Staaten, verbietet es sich, ihre gesamte Vernichtungsgewalt einzusetzen. Die USA müssen darauf achten, das Ausmaß ziviler Opfer und Schäden so weit wie möglich zu begrenzen. Sonst würde nicht nur der Protest der westlichen - und am Ende auch der amerikanischen - Öffentlichkeit über den Köpfen der US-Administration zusammenschlagen. Die USA würde damit ihre Identität als eine zivilisierte, demokratische Macht verlieren und sich mit den Kräften auf eine Stufe stellen, die sie bekämpft.

Das Regime in Bagdad hat dies selbstverständlich genau begriffen und setzt alles daran, die Unterscheidungsmöglichkeit zwischen militärischen und zivilen Zielen systematisch auszulöschen. Seine Hauptwaffe sind die Berichte und Bilder verletzter und getöteter Zivilisten, die das Gewissen der westlichen Fernsehzuschauer aufwühlen. Das Regime hat nicht nur keinerlei moralische Skrupel, zivile Tote in Kauf zu nehmen, es ist sogar an einer möglichst hohen Opferzahl interessiert. Es bringt deshalb seine Truppen und militärischen Einrichtungen bewusst inmitten ziviler Gebiete in Stellung und lässt seine SS-ähnlichen Sonderkommandos mit Gewalt dafür sorgen, dass die Bevölkerung den Kriegsschauplatz nicht verlassen kann. (Unter diesen Umständen ist es schon seltsam, wenn sich deutsche Kommentatoren täglich darüber wundern, dass es keine Aufstände gegen das Baath-Regime gibt). Es führt zudem die Angreifer, vor allem aber die westliche Medienöffentlichkeit gezielt in die Irre, indem sie Kämpfer in Zivilkleidung steckt und so Bilder gefallener oder verwundeter Krieger aus ihren Killer-Spezialkommandos als unschuldige Opfer ausgeben kann. Und die westliche, jedenfalls die europäische Öffentlichkeit, ist dafür anfällig, auf diese erpresserische Logik hereinzufallen. Denn sie ist ganz auf die Einlösung ihrer Prophezeiung eingeschworen, der Krieg werde unter den irakischen Zivilisten einen beispiellosen Blutzoll kosten. Man ist nur allzu geneigt, Angaben über hohe Opferzahlen Glauben zu schenken, weil man damit seine eigene moralische Haltung - "Krieg kann nie eine Lösung sein und trifft immer nur Unschuldige" - bestätigt sieht. Man schaut deshalb nicht mehr so genau hin, wer da aus welchem Grund ums Leben gekommen ist - alle sind schließlich Opfer des großen Erzübels Krieg.

Besonders beunruhigend ist aber, dass hierzulande so Wenige die zynische Taktik eines totalitären Regimes durchschauen - oder durchschauen wollen. Der berechtigte Abscheu vor dem Krieg und dem Leiden, der unbeteiligten Menschen damit zugefügt wird, wird fast ausschließlich den Amerikanern und ihren Alliierten aufs Schuldenkonto geschrieben. 83% der deutschen Bevölkerung lehnt laut der jüngsten Umfrage den Krieg inzwischen ab, Tendenz offenbar steigend. Sicher: eine westliche Demokratie muss sich an den hohen moralischen Ansprüchen messen lassen, die sie selbst propagiert. Aber darüber darf der fundamentale Unterschied zwischen einer Demokratie, die in manchen Fällen gegen ihre eigenen moralischen Prinzipien verstößt, und einem totalitären System, das der humanistischen Moral an sich den Vernichtungskrieg erklärt hat, nicht verwischt werden. Genau dies scheint aber in Europa, mit der verblassenden Erinnerung an die eigene totalitäre Vergangenheit, zunehmend zu geschehen. Alle die Deutschen, die jetzt vor den Kameras betonen, dass sie wegen der Erinnerung an den Krieg im eigenen Lande mit den Menschen im Irak mitfühlen könnten, sollten auch einmal wieder ihre Erinnerung an den Horror des NS-Regime hervorkramen, das nur durch Krieg besiegt werden konnte.

Bei vielen Kriegsgegnern spürt man eine klammheimliche (oder gar nicht so heimliche) Hoffnung, die Amerikaner sollten im Irak, wenn nicht eine Niederlage erleiden, so doch zumindest eine blutige Lehre erteilt bekommen. Der Masochismus, der hinter solchen unfrommen Wünschen steckt, ist schwer zu begreifen. Macht sich irgendjemand klar, was es für den Westen und damit für unser aller Freiheit und Sicherheit bedeuten würde, wenn ein Monsterregime wie das Saddam Husseins den konzentrierten Angriff der westlichen Führungsmacht überstehen würde? Dann nämlich würden solche Systeme zu der Überzeugung gelangen, dass die "dekadente" westliche Welt wehrlos sei und man ihre gewaltige Überlegenheit nicht mehr fürchten müsse. Auch wenn man den Krieg als Mittel des Sturzes Saddam Husseins ablehnt, auch wenn man zu Recht den bündnispolitischen Autismus der US-Administration und die offensichtlich mangelhafte, weil überhebliche Vorbereitung des Krieges kritisiert; selbst wenn man an der völkerrechtlichen Legitimation des Feldzugs zweifelt (diese Zweifel gab es auch im Kosovo-Krieg!), kann man sich bei klarem Verstand nichts anderes wünschen als einen möglichst schnellen und reibungslosen Sieg der US-geführten Koalition.

Deshalb ist Verteidigungsminister Peter Struck zu loben, der dies am Donnerstagabend in einer Diskussion im ZDF - auf ausdrückliche Nachfrage - endlich klar und deutlich aussprach. Es ist höchste Zeit, dass die Bundesregierung auch offiziell dem überschwappenden antiamerikanischen Grundgefühl in der Republik entgegentritt und die Maßstäbe wieder zurechtrückt: Gerade weil es im Irak wesentlich schwieriger zu laufen scheint als sich dies mancher neokonservative Hurra-Utopist in der US-Administration vorgestellt haben mag; gerade wenn der Krieg lange und schwierig werden sollte, wächst der Druck auf die "unwilligen" europäischen Regierungen, und das heißt vor allem Deutschland und Frankreich den Amerikanern und Briten, wenn nicht materiell, so doch zumindest politisch-moralisch entschieden zu Hilfe zu kommen. Die Zeit für schmollendes, rechthaberisches Beiseitestehen ist vorbei.>