Detroit Free Press March 12, 2003
U.S. flexes muscles in messages for Iraq; Enemy troops are contacted; bomb is tested
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the United States was in secret contact with elements of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's military, and hopes they will step aside or surrender in the event of a U.S.-led attack.
Rumsfeld's comments, at a Pentagon news conference broadcast into Iraq, marked the first official indication from the U.S. military that some Iraqi soldiers are cooperating in undermining Hussein.
"They are being communicated with privately at the present time," Rumsfeld said. "They will receive instructions so that they can behave in a way that will be seen and understood as being nonthreatening. And they will not be considered combatants, and they will be handled in a way that they are no longer part of the problem."
The disclosure, together with the testing of a powerful new American bomb Tuesday at an Air Force installation in Florida, seemed aimed at fomenting fear -- front and rear -- in the Iraqi military.
The bomb, called a Massive Ordnance Air Blast, contained 10.5 tons of explosives, making it the largest conventional bomb in existence.
At the United Nations, the United States pushed for a crucial vote by Friday on a resolution sanctioning war against Iraq, even if it cannot be assured of winning over a majority on the UN Security Council.
The United States and Britain indicated they would agree to a short extension of a deadline, initially proposed for March 17, for Hussein to disarm or face war. The White House dismissed a proposal to extend the ultimatum to mid-April.
In another development, Rumsfeld left open the possibility that the United States might invade Iraq without British forces, if Prime Minister Tony Blair cannot overcome antiwar pressure from most of his public and much of his own Labor Party.
"That is an issue that the president will be addressing in the days ahead, one would assume," Rumsfeld said. "There are workarounds."
Also for the first time Tuesday, the Pentagon said officially how many American and coalition troops are in the region of potential combat: at least 225,000. Another 60,000 troops were ordered to the region last week.
Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reported the figure during a news briefing where he also showed video of an Iraqi radar installation in southern Iraq being blown up by a precision-guided bomb.
The Pentagon also had let it be known that its planes were dropping hundreds of thousands of leaflets over Iraq, especially in the southern no-fly zone, that say resistance would be futile.
Hussein's military is divided into segments -- a "popular army" of about 280,000 to 350,000 soldiers organized into 17 divisions, plus an elite Republican Guard organized into seven divisions.
GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based public policy group that monitors declassified intelligence assessments of Iraqi strength, reports that the main function of the Republican Guard -- besides protecting Baghdad -- is to "protect the regime from the army."
The regular-army troops are the ones on the front lines, who will have the first choice of standing aside or giving up.
At the United Nations, U.S. and British officials -- still trying to secure at least a symbolic victory on the world diplomatic stage -- struggled to craft a resolution that would attract a majority of votes on the 15-member Security Council to authorize war on Iraq.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the new version of a draft resolution might open another 10-day window for Iraq to prove that it has disarmed itself of all chemical and biological weapons.
The updated resolution also could require answers to "unanswered questions" about Iraq's suspected stocks of VX nerve agent and anthrax.
It is unlikely, however, that the new proposal will remove language that France and Russia find objectionable. Both nations have pledged to veto any resolution that allows the automatic use of force upon any Iraqi failure to comply fully, and Washington insists upon such terms.
Copyright © 2003, Detroit Free Press
