WASHINGTON, Jan 2: War drums could be heard louder on the New Year day in Washington where authorities ordered the so far largest troop deployment to the Persian Gulf.
And at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush told reporters that the war against Iraq was necessary to also protect the US economy.
“An attack from (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy,” he said.
In Washington, Pentagon officials confirmed that troops from the 3rd Infantry Division were ordered Wednesday to prepare for deployment. US defence experts called this the largest movement of ground troops to the area since the 1991 Gulf war.
The latest deployment comes from Georgia where the 3rd Infantry Division is based. Some 4,000 troops from the division are already in Kuwait and will be joined by more than 15,000 still in the United States.
The division’s 1st and 3rd Brigades, from Fort Stewart and Fort Benning, Georgia, respectively, and its aviation brigade, from Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah, Georgia, will begin moving to the region in the coming weeks.
The action will mark the first deployment of a full combat division to the area since the 1991 Gulf War. Much of the division’s equipment is already waiting in the region.
Also, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier will stay in the Pacific Ocean and Arabian Gulf indefinitely instead of returning to its home port in Everett, Washington state, next month as planned, the Navy said.
The forces ordered to deploy so far are far short of the more than 250,000 US troops sent to the region for the Gulf War. But while any invasion of Iraq would be likely to initially include far fewer than a quarter-million American troops, the current number could swell rapidly in January and February.
Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has put thousands of troops on notice who when deployed could soon double the nearly 60,000 US personnel — including Navy and Air Force troops already in the region.
Congressional analysts have predicted that the war against Iraq could have a destabilizing impact on the United States economy, as it would cost at least $50 billion. Billions more will have to be spent in rebuilding Iraq after the war and for providing security to the new government that will replace Saddam.
Bush disagreed. “This economy cannot afford to stand an attack,” he declared.
Reports in the Washington press suggest that the Bush administration is ready to spend more than $60 billion on the war.
The US president has given two options to Saddam: disarm or face an attack. On Washington’s prodding, a team of United Nations inspectors has been searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So far they have found none.
But Washington is urging them to look harder, adding that Saddam keeps his arsenal under wraps.
