U.S. Force Reported Nearly Capable of Ousting Iraqis

The U.S. military force in Saudi Arabia, five weeks after the first elements landed, has undergone a significant change, its commanders believe.

At first a thin line in the sand, it has become what they now describe as an army nearly capable of driving the Iraqi troops out of Kuwait and back into their homeland.

At the main U.S. staging base in eastern Saudi Arabia, the flow of arriving troops has slowed to a trickle. But at a port nearby, U.S. ships continue to disgorge an endless stream of heavy weapons, filling acres of parking lots and warehouses built for a thriving oil industry.

By Sunday, three big Marine formations totaling 45,000 personnel and the Army’s 24th Mechanized Infantry Division were at full strength and in position.

Although logistic snarls have delayed the arrival of two smaller Army tank forces, military sources said that the gathering of the 24th Division, with almost 200 tanks, has given the force a strength that no number of planes could give it.

“The arrival of the 24th with its M-1 Abrams tanks gives us a lot more options,” Lt. Gen. Charles A. Horner told an interviewer. “Heavier forces allow you to contest for space.”

Horner, commander of U.S. Forces Saudi Arabia, had earlier commanded all U.S. troops on the ground here.

Several miles behind the forward U.S. positions, the support forces are getting ready. Military sources said the supporting troops are now about six weeks from completing their preparations.

Already, according to Maj. Joe Russell, operations officer of the 24th Division, the logistics people have given the 24th “enough to sustain the first round of battle, though not the second or third just yet.”

The Navy has set up a 500-bed hospital, and dozens of other hospitals have sprung up across the desert. There are 10 water desalination plants that can produce up to 100,000 gallons a day of potable water from the Persian Gulf.

Inland, the military has organized headquarters with accommodations for almost 4,000 people, including a gymnasium and facilities for the troops to make a weekly “morale call” home.

There are now nearly 150,000 American servicemen and women in the area, with their own newspapers and a thriving T-shirt concession. About 7,000 radios are on the way or already in the hands of troops in the field, and the Armed Forces Radio and Television network is broadcasting sports, news and entertainment programs by satellite.

Comedian Jay Leno is scheduled to entertain the troops soon under USO auspices, accompanied by model-actress Brooke Shields.

The Americans are dug into the sand deeply enough to suggest defensive resolve but not so deep that they can’t pull out and move forward.

Marines talk about rolling the Iraqis back into Baghdad. Maj. Gen. Royal N. Moore Jr., commander of the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing from El Toro, Calif., told a reporter:

“We have a theory, along with the Air Force and others, that we could roll back those guys, and I think we could do it very, very effectively. I’m not going to predict that it’s going to be a cakewalk, but if we do it right, the casualties will be light, we hope.”

This week, the American commitment will enter a new phase. Col. Walt Mather, commander of the 24th Division’s 1st Brigade, said, “Militarily, I think the window is opening, and it just gets wider and wider as our logistics train gets stronger.”

Mather was not the only officer who talked about a window of opportunity. Many others believe as Mather does that the U.S. force will get stronger with time, but some have a wary sense that that window may begin to close after several months.

One said that a long stay in the desert could have a negative effect on the men, and on public opinion at home.

“There is definitely a point of diminishing marginal returns out here,” he said.

Regional experts said there are other, more practical reasons why an offensive operation will become less attractive in the early months of next year. At that time of year there are fierce sandstorms that can clog fuel lines and carburetors and generally reduce the dependability of mechanical equipment of all kinds.

Generals and maintenance specialists fret that such storms could erode performance and increase maintenance demands on equipment ranging from radios to jet aircraft.

By December and January, extreme temperatures will have begun to take their toll on rubber parts. In March and April, torrential rains can be expected to make much of the desert impassable for wheeled vehicles. And from February to April, high winds could make amphibious landings difficult.

Also, American military men have come to regard local custom as a rich deposit of common sense, and local custom dictates that fall and early winter are the time for war.

But for now, what the military considers suitable may not fit the political mood. President Bush said the other day that Iraq’s seizure of Kuwait “will not stand,” but he spoke of “convincing” the Iraqis of the wisdom of withdrawing, not of driving them out.

At his summit meeting earlier this month with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Bush left the military option off the agenda. And since that meeting, the Bush Administration appears to have cooled its bellicose rhetoric in favor of diplomacy and the economic sanctions.

But cracks have begun to appear in the embargo, and Iraqi forces continue to behave erratically--for example, bursting into diplomatic missions in Kuwait. Consequently, neither the conservative U.S. military, which would like to wait until it gets all its spare parts in November, nor President Bush may have the luxury of waiting for months to take military action to persuade the Iraqis to pull out.

Meanwhile, commanders in the field say increasingly that their men are “good to go,” even though there is none of the bravura of earlier days, when the line in the sand was a lot thinner. ‘Front Line State’ in the Gulf Crisis Anti-Iraq Front Bahrain*, Egypt, Oman* Qatar*, Saudi Arabia*, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates* *Gulf Cooperation Council Not Part Of Anti-Iraq Front Iran, Jordan, Yemen