Powell Joins in Hawkish Pep Talks

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney told American troops in the desert today that it looks increasingly as though war will be necessary to drive Iraqi troops out of occupied Kuwait.

Joining Cheney in hawkish pep rallies with troops in the northeast Saudi desert was Gen. Colin L. Powell, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, who said he still hopes for resolution of the Persian Gulf crisis without war but then drew roars of applause when he pledged:

“When we launch it, we will launch it violently; we will launch it in a way that will make it decisive so we can get it over as quickly as possible and there’s no question who won.”

Cheney said he is not optimistic Washington and Iraq will agree on dates to hold top-level talks on the crisis, let alone resolve it, by the Jan. 15 U.N. deadline for Saddam Hussein to withdraw his army from Kuwait.

President Bush has threatened to attack if that deadline isn’t met, and the two sides have been unable to agree on dates for talks in Baghdad and Washington.

“It increasingly looks like he’s not getting the message and we’ll have to use force,” Cheney said of Hussein.

Asked by an airman how long the United States will wait to attack if the deadline passes without an Iraqi withdrawal, Cheney said:

“While I can’t tell you a specific date, for obvious reasons, when that would happen, I can say that we are eager to get this wrapped up as quickly as possible. . . . We do not think that waiting indefinitely is going to solve the problem, and I’m confident we’ll move as soon as we can to wrap it up.”

But he did not say when he believes American forces will be ready for such an attack.

In Washington, Secretary of State James A. Baker III and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft echoed Cheney’s words.

Baker said Iraqi maneuvering over the dates left little reason for hope of a diplomatic solution by Jan. 15.

“So far at least, the behavior of the government of Iraq . . . would not make one optimistic that we could succeed in our very strong efforts to achieve a political peaceful resolution,” Baker said.

Scowcroft said Bush will not back off.

“One of the important points we’re trying to get across to him is that we haven’t blinked so far, we’re not blinking now and we will not blink,” he said in an interview with news agency reporters.

Hussein said today on German television that he will not withdraw from Kuwait before Jan. 15.

Asked in the interview recorded in Baghdad Thursday if his country will withdraw by Jan. 15 from the emirate which it invaded on Aug. 2 and then annexed, Hussein replied, “No.”

But Algeria’s foreign minister, whose president has been acting as a go-between, said today in Rome that Iraq is willing to compromise to avert war in the Persian Gulf but will not accept a solution that sullies its honor.

“Iraq certainly seeks a peaceful solution and is willing to pay the price for it--but not any price--and it will not accept any settlement that sullies its honor,” Algerian Foreign Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali told a news conference.