The Hindu : U.S. begins 'preparatory exercises'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 10, 2002

International

International

U.S. begins 'preparatory exercises'

By Atul Aneja

MANAMA (BAHRAIN) Dec. 9. The United States on Monday began a major military exercise to test its capacity to launch a high-speed military campaign in the Arabian desert.

The military manoeuvres, involving the testing of a portable military headquarters close to the battlefield, were launched by the U.S. Central Command head, General Tommy Franks, aided by 50 senior officers who make up the command's intelligence and operations staff.

According to Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communications for Central Command, Gen. Franks urged his staff to use the exercise to make smarter decisions, more quickly and more efficiently. Gen. Franks in his forward headquarters at As Sayliyah in Qatar, will be digitally linked to his air force commander in Saudi Arabia, naval commander in Bahrain, his army commander in Kuwait as well as the Central Command's permanent headquarters in Florida.

A mobile headquarters close to the frontlines allows quicker and better decisions by allowing frequent face-to-face meetings among the military top brass. The net result is that a technologically intensive battle can be fought at an accelerated pace that can catch the enemy off-guard. Observers see the cutting edge exercise in Qatar as a dress rehearsal for a U.S. showdown with Iraq.

The timing of the manoeuvre, which is essentially meant to test a new high technology command post, is significant as it follows the growing accumulation of war material in the region.

Acknowledging the significance of the exercise, Iraq, on its part, has carefully calibrated its response aimed at restraining Washington. A top Iraqi General on Sunday, on the eve of the exercise, went to great lengths to suggest that Iraq had the talent to make advanced weapons. Referring to the Iraqi advances in building an atomic bomb prior to 1991, Gen. Amir al-Saadi said, "We have the complete documentation from design to all the other things. We haven't reached the final assemble of a bomb nor tested it." The General pointed out that it was for the International Atomic Energy Agency "to judge how close we were." Besides, in move that would encourage key U.N. Security Council members, Russia and China, to discourage the U.S. from launching an attack, Iraqi officials backing their lengthy declaration on weapons on Saturday, went into overdrive to deny possession of mass destruction weapons or a programme to build them.

Meanwhile U.N. arms inspectors, who are under considerable pressure to search for weapons more aggressively, went into the Al-Tuweitha Nuclear Research Centre near Baghdad, for the third time since their arrival. The centre is the site of the Osirak reactor that the Israelis bombed in 1981. In Baghdad, Iraq's Parliament urged Arabs to seek martyrdom by attacking U.S. forces in Kuwait, saying the Americans were preparing to occupy Iraq.

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