U.S. to Beef Up Gulf Force : 100,000 More Troops May Be Sent

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said today the United States will continue its military buildup in the Persian Gulf, perhaps adding as many as 100,000 troops in another wave of deployment.

“We’re not at the point yet where we want to stop adding forces,” Cheney said.

He declined to say how many troops might be added to the U.S. deployment, which now totals 220,000 troops in and around Saudi Arabia. But when asked if adding 100,000 troops was possible, Cheney said, “It’s conceivable that we’ll end up with that big an increase.”

Pentagon sources said Wednesday the current deployment would reach the planned level of 240,000 in three weeks. But Cheney said the Administration “never put an upper ceiling on the deployment.”

His comments came as President Bush faced several decisions about the makeup of the gulf forces and as his top uniformed commander, Gen. Colin L. Powell, headed home from talks with ground commanders in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, CIA Director William H. Webster said there were small signs of discontent within the Iraqi military against Hussein.

In one of the most revealing public assessments by a senior U.S. official, he said U.N. sanctions are beginning to have an impact on Iraq but also voiced doubt there could be peace in the region if Hussein remains in power unless his weapons are destroyed.

“It’s a thin reed to put hope on at the present. But it is encouraging that we are getting reports of dissatisfaction” in the Iraqi military, he told the National Council of World Affairs Organizations.

Webster cautioned there were similar signs of discontent among Panama’s armed forces in the late 1980s and said “it took more than that” to force strongman Manuel A. Noriega from power.

He said the Administration had “no real confidence that the area will ever be secure again as long as (Hussein) is still there unless” a regional, countervailing force is put in place or “he is disassociated from his weapons of mass destruction.”

Also today, French President Francois Mitterrand was reported ready to allow French forces in the Persian Gulf region to operate under U.S. command.

The International Herald Tribune also reported--but an Elysee Palace spokesman denied--that Mitterrand expects war to break out in the Middle East because of the continuing intransigence of Hussein.

The U.S.-led multinational forces now total more than 300,000 but still fall far short of the estimated 430,000 Iraqi troops deployed in heavily fortified positions in occupied Kuwait and southern Iraq.

Pentagon planners, noting a recent decline in polls of public support for the desert deployment, have urged Cheney and other senior Administration officials to articulate their reasons clearly should they decide to expand the force.

Cheney said the Administration still hopes for a peaceful solution to the standoff with Hussein but wants to make sure its force in the region offers Bush the option of ordering an offensive.

“We want to make certain we’ve got the forces over there to deal with any contingency,” Cheney said on “CBS This Morning.”