Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120391
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Military commanders have said that increased bombing of Iraqi forces would precede a land assault into occupied Kuwait, and Bush himself remarked last week that he was skeptical air power alone could force Iraq to withdraw.
But Bush's remarks in the White House's Rose Garden Monday, which followed talks with top military advisers just back from the war zone, were clearly designed to discourage speculation that a land war was imminent.
Remarks by French and British leaders have heightened expectations that an allied ground offensive could begin as early as this week.
Flanked by Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the president said that he was "very satisfied" with the progress of the allied campaign. The defense officials gave Bush a status report based on two days of strategy sessions with allied field commanders in Saudi Arabia.
The air campaign will continue "for a while," Bush declared. He indicated that he and his military advisers are not now discussing a date for a ground phase to begin.
"We're not talking about dates for further, [for] adding to the air campaign, put it that way," he told reporters. "We are going to take whatever time is necessary to sort out when a next stage might begin."
Bush weighed the start of ground action as Iraq voiced anew its determination not to capitulate and announced that the government had ordered 17-year-old male students to report for military duty.
"Iraq will not ask for a cease-fire after one week or two weeks, and it will not cease its fire until total victory over the aggressors is achieved," Iraqi radio said.
The Bush administration has been under considerable pressure from Republicans and Democrats in Congress to delay any ground war as long as possible. Despite assertions by Powell and other top officials that a land phase may not be as bloody as many fear, there continues to be concern that public support for the war would begin to evaporate if there is a prolonged ground campaign with heavy casualties.
Bush, aware that his remarks are monitored closely by Iraq and that allied commanders would like to preserve a measure of tactical surprise in timing any ground offensive, said that he would have nothing further to say about the next phase of the war. He indicated that other U.S. officials should refrain from such talk as well "for a lot of reasons, including the safety of our own troops."
Military officials in Saudi Arabia continued to project considerable optimism about the damage that had been done to Iraqi ground forces during the first 3 1/2 weeks of the bombing campaign. Military officials, both at their headquarters in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and in the field, also said that many more targets remain to be hit, despite the roughly 63,000 combat and support sorties flown by allied pilots thus far.
U.S. commanders said that they were encouraged by signs that some Iraqi units are adjusting their positions within Kuwait.
"Some of the movement has convinced us they are taking big-time hits on some of their organization and structure," a senior military officer said. "They have had to combine some of those forces."
The U.S.-led air armada flew one of its heaviest raids of the war, with more than 750 bombing runs into occupied Kuwait late Sunday and Monday. The strikes included 200 missions against the elite Republican Guard.
One Air Force commander said that so many allied planes were flying over Kuwait that there was a serious concern about collisions. Another officer said that the air traffic over tiny Kuwait was greater than that over Los Angeles, Dallas and Atlanta combined.
In other war-related news Monday:
Defense Department sources confirmed that a U.S. servicewoman was being held as a prisoner of war by Iraq, reportedly in the heavily bombed city of Basra, according to information obtained from a captured Iraqi soldier. The woman, a 20-year-old soldier apparently captured last month, was still officially listed as missing in action.
Although allied pilots reported destroying five more mobile missile launchers in Iraq, there were new Scud missile attacks Monday against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Two landed in Israel, several hours apart. The second hit a residential area, injuring several people and causing damage.
Two workers at a Saudi university outside Riyadh were injured by flying glass when a U.S. Patriot missile intercepted a Scud. Debris wrecked a building housing a swimming pool and dug a crater 10 feet wide and 3 feet deep in the ground outside, according to reporters on the scene.
Iraq's religious affairs minister said that there had been "thousands" of civilian casualties of the air war, the highest civilian toll reported to date by Iraq. There was an unconfirmed report out of Egypt that as many as 15,000 Iraqi soldiers had also been killed.
by CNB