9871. U.S. Sends More Troops and Firepower to the Gulf

By Linda D. Kozaryn

American Forces Press Service



	MUNICH, Germany -- The United States is sending another 

2,200 Marines and five warships to the Persian Gulf to join what 

Pentagon officials describe as the "robust" American and British 

force already assembled there.

	Defense Secretary William S. Cohen announced Feb. 6, the 

United States has deployed the USS Guam Amphibious Readiness 

Group at the request of U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, 

U.S. Central Command commander. Zinni also asked for and will 

receive more combat aircraft, Cohen said. 

	More than 24,000 American troops, 25 U.S. ships and 325 U.S. 

aircraft are assembled in the Persian Gulf awaiting the outcome 

of a standoff between the United Nations and Iraq. British forces 

in the gulf include the carrier HMS Invincible, about 2,500 

troops and six Royal Air Force GR1 Tornado aircraft.

	The USS Guam is scheduled to reach the Gulf by mid-February. 

The amphibious readiness group will join the USS George 

Washington and the USS Independence carrier battle groups.

	At a joint White House news conference earlier in the day, 

President Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair vowed to 

use military force against Saddam Hussein if necessary. "On Iraq, 

we stand together," Clinton said. "We must be prepared to act and 

we are."

	Blair announced he was sending another eight Tornados to the 

region. "We have been looking at our own military readiness in 

case a diplomatic solution does not in the end prove possible," 

he said.

	Cohen met with reporters Feb. 6 while en route to Europe at 

the start of a seven-day trip to Germany, Saudi Arabia, Oman, 

Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. His 

trip followed on the heels of Secretary of State Madeleine 

Albright's visit to the gulf region a week earlier. 

	While Albright outlined diplomatic initiatives under way, 

Cohen said he aimed to ensure the gulf states the United States 

plans a substantial military strike if no diplomatic solution is 

found to the crisis. 

	"There have been concerns in the past that when Saddam has 

taken certain provocative action, we have responded in a rather 

mild fashion," Cohen said. "This is not mild or meager, this is 

substantial." 

	If necessary, U.S. forces will strike targets involved in 

developing or delivering weapons of mass destruction, Cohen said. 

	Cohen said the ongoing Winter Olympics in Japan would not 

affect the timing of an attack. U.S. officials would act either 

as an appropriate reaction to Saddam's actions, or after 

determining diplomatic efforts unsuccessful, he said.

	"We wouldn't be bound by any external factors beyond that," 

he said. "If Saddam Hussein should attack a U-2 [surveillance 

plane], we would not await the completion of the Olympics before 

responding."

	Hussein's continued defiance of U.N. Security Council 

resolutions has put U.N. credibility on the line, Cohen said. "If 

they can't stand behind enforcement of their own resolutions, 

then their resolutions in the future are not going to mean very 

much."

	He expressed his confidence the Persian Gulf states will 

back military action against Iraq. "We will have whatever support 

is necessary to carry out a military mission," he told reporters. 

And, if Iraq retaliates by attacking its neighbors, the United 

States "will be there to help protect all those in the region," 

he said.

	Some gulf states have asked the United States for defensive 

equipment in case of chemical or biological attack, Cohen said.

	Before departing Washington, Cohen told CNN's Larry King 

Feb. 4 that time is running out for a diplomatic solution. "If 

diplomacy is going to succeed, it should proceed fairly quickly," 

he said. 

	The overarching U.N. goal is to curtail Iraq's ability to 

develop or deliver weapons of mass destruction, Cohen said. 

Having U.N. inspectors on the ground is the best way to ferret 

out what Hussein is doing in terms of building and hiding those 

instruments of war, he said.

	Hussein must open his country to U.N. inspection, Cohen 

said. He must prove he is not rebuilding the weapons of mass 

destruction that he used in the past against his own people and 

against Iran, and that he threatened to use against others.

	Cohen told CNN Hussein has admitted to having at least 2,100 

gallons of anthrax. "A five-pound bag of anthrax would wipe out 

between 60 and 70 percent of the population of a city the size of 

Washington, D.C.," he said.

	U.N. officials have evidence Hussein has at least four tons 

of the nerve agent VX, Cohen said. "One drop on your finger and 

you will die in a couple of minutes." The Iraqi ruler also has 

hundreds of acres of castor beans used to make Ricin, a poison 

with no antidote, the defense secretary noted.

	Hussein is a "bully" and a "master of deception" who claims 

he has destroyed Iraq's chemical and biological weapons, Cohen 

said. "We have yet to see the full evidence that they've been 

destroyed."









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