Newsday December 23, 2002
U.S. to Seek Iraqi Exiles For Nation's Next Army
Associated Press
Aboard the USS Constellation - The Pentagon wants to recruit Iraqi exiles and train them to be part of a future Iraqi national army, the U.S. military's top general said yesterday.
Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed that planning is under way to train Iraqi volunteer soldiers in Europe.
After a meeting of Iraqi opposition groups in London last week, reports emerged that several thousand Iraqi exiles would be recruited to guide coalition troops for a possible war against Baghdad. The exiles would form the core of the Arab country's new armed forces if President Saddam Hussein were ousted. Last week Hungary gave the United States permission to use a former Soviet air base to train the Iraqis for possible deployment in their homeland.
Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan J. Gal said the first trainees could arrive as early as January at the Taszar air base, southeast of Budapest. The United States has permission to train up to 3,000 personnel of Iraqi or other Arab origin now living in Europe or the United States and attached to the U.S. military, Gal said.
Myers visited the aircraft carrier yesterday as part of a tour of U.S. forces in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. The Constellation, which replaced the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the northern Arabian Sea, started mounting combat air patrols last week in the southern no-fly zone over Iraq. It left San Diego on Nov. 2 on a six-month deployment to the gulf area.
The general cautioned that recruiting and vetting Iraqi volunteers for the new force "is not a particularly easy process [and] it will take some time."
He also denied reports of rifts among top U.S. military commanders regarding operational plans for a high-speed thrust by ground forces deep into Iraq.
Myers said the steady buildup of U.S. forces in the region would continue "in order to help diplomacy" and encourage Baghdad "to do the right thing" regarding weapons of mass destruction.
United Nations inspectors are in Iraq searching for such weapons. The Iraqi government denies having biological, chemical or nuclear weapons or programs to develop them.
Myers, who was accompanied by comedian Drew Carey and Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, was greeted by thunderous chants of "USA, USA" from hundreds of sailors and airmen assembled in the carrier's vast hangar.
Sizing Up The Forces
Estimates of U.S. military presence in the Middle East in preparation for a possible conflict with Iraq:
BAHRAIN
Troops: 1,300, including headquarters personnel
Equipment: Assorted support and surveillance aircraft.
Home of Navy's Fifth Fleet.
DIEGO GARCIA
Troops: 1,000, about 900 more on floating prepositioned ships that hold equipment for Army and Marine brigades. U.S. is building shelters for B-2 stealth bombers on the British territory.
Equipment: 8 B-52 bombers, 4 or 5 B-2 stealth bombers expected.
KUWAIT
Troops: More than 11,000
Equipment: Prepositioned equipment includes 176 M1A-1 Abrams tanks, 176 Bradley fighting vehicles, 2 Patriot missile batteries, 75 helicopters. More expected.
OMAN
Troops: 3,000
Equipment: 30 aircraft, flying out of 3 air bases. Fourth airbase under construction. 6 gunships.
QATAR
Troops: 3,300, also 1,000 U.S. Central Command war planners
Equipment: 176 tanks, assorted cargo and reconnaisance aircraft.
Udeid air base considered a key to campaign against Iraq.
SAUDI ARABIA
Troops: 6,000
Equipment: 72 aircraft based here to patrol Iraq's southern no-fly zone. 2 Patriot antimissile batteries. Air war over Afghanistan was coordinated through command center at Prince Sultan Air Base. Unclear whether Saudis will allow use for campaign against Iraq.
TURKEY
Troops: 1,700
Equipment: 60 aircraft based at Incirlik air base, including F-15s and F-16s that patrol Iraq's northern no-fly zone.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Troops: 500
Equipment: 2 U-2 spy planes
AT SEA
Troops: 20,000
Total ships: 49-51, including 2 Naval carrier groups, USS Abraham Lincoln and George Washington; 3 others expected, USS Constellation, Kitty Hawk and Harry S Truman. More than 2,000 Marines conducting exercises off Kenyan coast.
Equipment: 350 aircraft,
800 missiles
Iraq's Arsenal
Total manpower: 424,000
Troops: 375,000
Equipment: 2,200 tanks, 316 aircraft, 375 helicopters, 0
ships. Iraq's nuclear weapons program was largely destroyed during the Gulf War, although Baghdad reportedly remains committed to acquiring nuclear capability. Nearly 7,000 scientists and technicians continue to develop its nuclear capability, according to a CIA report on foreign missile development.
SOURCES: Center for Defense Information, Center for Strategic and International Studies; CIA World Factbook, Monterrey Institute of International Studies,
www.globalsecurity.org, staff reporting.
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