Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 7, 1991 TAG: 9102070524
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: JOHN KING ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Some of the most senior Operation Desert Storm commanders are split over strategy, not an uncommon occurrence in war.
Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were heading today for the theater of war, charged with assessing when to begin the expected ground assault on Iraq's formidable army.
Cheney and Powell may deliver a single recommendation to Bush, or they, too, may disagree.
But the president alone will decide how soon to send into battle the more than 300,000 American ground troops in the region, most of whom are now within miles of Iraqi troops in Iraq and occupied Kuwait.
Publicly, ground commanders have seemed to side with Air Force leaders who say a continuation of the relentless bombing that has been the war's hallmark to date will eventually destroy the Iraqi military - if given the chance.
"It's a time now for patience," the top Marine in Saudi Arabia, Lt. Gen. Walter Boomer, said last week. "We'll do it when we are ready."
Some Air Force officers believe a ground war could be avoided if the air war is given as much as six months to do the job - a prospect not considered politically expedient.
However, many senior officers believe an attack order from Bush could come as early as next week.
The flow of war materiel\ 1 to the front is surging, and allied pilots are concentrating on blasting Iraqi ground troops - missions that senior officers have said would come in the final days before a ground assault.
There is general agreement that the bombing is beginning to significantly erode the staying power of Saddam Hussein's ground forces.
The disagreement centers on the extent of the damage, and whether there is a limit to how much damage the air war can do.
Most of the debate is going on in private, and it often pits senior officers in Saudi Arabia against their counterparts at the Pentagon.
For example, in the past 48 hours, three senior officers in Saudi Arabia have said in private conversations that the allies are near the crucial benchmark of cutting the military might of Iraqi ground forces at least in half.
Two of these officers still favor giving the air campaign several more weeks; the third endorses a ground offensive "in 10 days, two weeks" arguing that by then the bombing will have done about as much damage as it can to Iraq's heavily fortified defensive positions.
Two of the three officers said one of Saddam's Republican Guard divisions - at least 10,000 troops - is now at roughly 40 percent of its prewar strength.
The Pentagon assessment is somewhat different.
"We've not annihilated any of their primary war-fighting capabilities," one senior military officer in Washington said of the 150,000-member Guard. "It's going to be a tough nut to crack."
Some of the disagreement comes from different interpretations of the same data. But there also are fears that intra-service rivalries - an often-cited reason for troubles in Vietnam - are intensifying as the air war overshadows the contributions of Army and Marine ground forces.
Most of the skepticism about the air campaign has come from Army and Marine officers.
"The politics worries me a great deal," one senior officer said. "I can understand the Army wanting more of the action, but at what price? . . . The death of one 18-year-old infantryman is one too many if it can be prevented."
The debate is full of ironies. Many of those now urging patience were arguing for an air attack in September or October, before Saddam's troops had time to dig the bunkers now protecting them from the allies' incessant bombing.
Air Force leaders have sparred at times with Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander in chief of Operation Desert Storm, and some worry that his allegiance to the Army might cause him to favor an early start to ground combat.
But others, including several Air Force officers, credit Schwarzkopf and Powell - another career Army officer - for swallowing any biases in endorsing a war plan that so far has favored the skies.
Powell is viewed as particularly cautious. In his first wartime briefing two weeks ago, he asked the American people simply: "Trust me."
by CNB