U.S. Sees Little Punch in Iraq Troop Buildup in Kuwait : Military: Hussein’s deployment could create ‘new vulnerabilities,’ Gen. Powell says.

The announced deployment of 250,000 more Iraqi troops in Kuwait would add little to Saddam Hussein’s war-making capability and could even hinder it by creating “new vulnerabilities” in the Persian Gulf standoff, America’s top military officer said Tuesday.

Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a series of television interviews that the additional Iraqi troops are likely to be poorly trained reinforcements deployed to spell weary soldiers on the front lines.

“It’s not clear that large numbers of additional, probably less capable units significantly add to his combat power in the theater and in fact might present him with new vulnerabilities rather than added strength,” Powell said.

However, military officials acknowledged that an influx of Iraqi troops would add a new complication to their strategic planning. “The truth changes every day,” Lt. Gen. John J. Yeosack, commander of Army forces in the gulf region, said in an interview in Dhahran. “What was true yesterday may not necessarily be true tomorrow, because things change.”

Powell said that Pentagon officials are “not terribly concerned” about Hussein’s announcement of the additional troop deployments in Kuwait, although he acknowledged that military commanders are watching the situation closely.

“It seems to me this is part of Saddam Hussein’s headline-of-the-day program,” he said. “Yesterday, it was troop buildup; the day before that, it was a hostage release. What he’s trying to do is take the world’s eye off the ball, and that ball is his aggression against the nation of Kuwait.”

Gen. Yeosack, in an interview with The Times on Tuesday, said that the logistical strains of a massive Iraqi buildup likely would outweigh any military advantage that the force could provide.

“Clearly they’re going to be of a lesser caliber than what has been put together thus far, if for no other reason than the time in which they’ve been together to train and operate,” he said. “Some things may be advantageous or may be an increased burden. That’s for Saddam to figure out.”

Asked whether he sees a prospect that the additional force would prove a greater burden to Iraq than benefit, the general answered: “Yes.”

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams expressed similar reservations about the significance of the Iraqi announcement, although he did not rule out a further buildup of U.S. forces beyond the planned deployment of more than 200,000 additional troops within the next two or three months.

“It’s hard to know whether this is something Iraq intends to do or whether this is just a propaganda ploy to get the attention off its occupation of Kuwait and the hostages,” Williams said.

“If Iraq does follow through on this announcement, it would be a further tightening of its grip on occupied Kuwait, just the opposite of what the world has asked Iraq to do, which is to withdraw from Kuwait.”

He added that it is too early to know whether Hussein’s announcement would lead to more U.S. troop deployments, noting that Pentagon officials would be monitoring Iraqi troop movements to determine if a buildup actually occurs.

“We have not seen any evidence of that alleged deployment,” he said. “It’s going to take them a long time to carry this out.”

A previous increase in Iraqi forces in and around Kuwait, from about 265,000 in early September to about 430,000 in October, was cited by the Pentagon as a key reason for President Bush’s decision earlier this month to send in a new wave of U.S. reinforcements.

Meanwhile, 45 House Democrats filed suit in U.S. District Court Tuesday seeking an injunction to prevent President Bush from ordering a military attack on Iraqi forces in Kuwait without first getting formal authorization from Congress.

The issue should be debated in Congress because “there are millions of American people in this country who have serious questions about going to war,” said California Rep. Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley), a leader of the Democratic group. “The President of the United States on his own cannot make that kind of determination.”

Pentagon spokesman Williams said that officials had not yet seen the legal papers filed by Dellums and his group. He insisted that Congress has been kept fully abreast of U.S. military actions in the Persian Gulf. “Members of Congress have been informed, consulted, met with, briefed . . . on every aspect of this operation so far,” Williams said.

Such lawsuits, filed over several foreign incidents in recent years, have routinely been thrown out by courts as subject to political rather than judicial determination.

Johnston reported from Washington and Jehl from Saudi Arabia.