Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 11, 1994 TAG: 9410120049
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: From The Dallas Morning News and The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Clinton said in a televised address from the Oval Office that he was not convinced the Iraqi forces were moving north.
``We're interested in facts, not promises, in deeds, not words, and we have not yet seen evidence that Iraq's troops are in fact pulling back,'' he said. ``Saddam Hussein has shown the world before ... that he cannot be trusted.''
The presidential order to send the B-52 bombers and F-15E fighter jets to the region came Monday afternoon after a meeting between Clinton and senior national security advisers at the White House. The aircraft will join a beefed-up Gulf force that, if fully deployed, could reach 70,000.
``Because of what happened in 1990, this provocation requires a strong response from the United States and the international community,'' Clinton said. ``We remain committed to defending the integrity of [Kuwait] and protecting the stability of the Gulf region.''
Pentagon officials said earlier Monday they could not confirm that the Iraqi forces - by some estimates totaling 80,000 - were pulling back from the border with Kuwait, which Iraq invaded and occupied in August 1990.
Clinton administration officials took a hard line throughout the day.
``Words are cheap,'' said Madeleine Albright, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. ``It's deeds, not words, that count.''
The announcement of the Iraqi withdrawal came in New York from Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Nizar Hamdoon, hours after the first 300 U.S. troops sent to the region arrived Monday morning in Kuwait City.
Hamdoon made no reference to the mobilization of military might by the United States and its allies. He said only that Baghdad had ordered the pullback ``in light of the concerns within the Security Council.''
The Iraqi foreign minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, told the government news agency in Baghdad that the forces were ordered to move north after appeals from ``friends'' and ``in view of the fact that the troops' presence might be used as a pretext to maintain sanctions.''
Iraq's military buildup coincided with a speech Friday at the United Nations by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, who aired Iraq's frustration over U.N. sanctions and U.S. resistance to their being lifted.
But Aziz made no reference to the troop movements, and analysts said the connection between the show of military might and the desire to be free of the sanctions was unclear.
``I don't see the logic of it, unless Saddam just wanted to demonstrate that he can still get everybody's attention and force us to move a lot of troops and spend a lot of money,'' said William Quandt, a member of the National Security Council in the Carter administration and Middle East specialist who teaches at the University of Virginia.
``Saddam's under a lot of pressure at home and he's looking for ways of relieving it, though I don't see how this does it for him. It doesn't make a lot of sense.''
The U.S. troop buildup will continue for some time, even if daylight shows the Iraqi troops moving north today, one official said. The official recalled Saddam's declarations in 1990 that his troops would leave Kuwait and other points, all of which he later ignored. ``There is not a lot of trust'' that Saddam will do as his government is pledging, the senior official said.
In an appearance on CNN, Defense Secretary William Perry said he would not rule out a pre-emptive strike against Iraq.
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