Cheney, Powell Tell Troops They Prefer Peace to War : Military: But the defense secretary says that if fighting starts, ‘there will be no holds barred.’

President Bush’s two top military men told U.S. fighting troops Saturday that they hope a peaceful solution to the Persian Gulf crisis is still possible, but they emphasized that Iraq must fully withdraw from Kuwait or there will be war.

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, here to assess the readiness of U.S. forces for possible war, traveled separately to front-line units, where they observed live-fire exercises, shared field rations with the troops and answered numerous questions about the likelihood of war.

Asked by a sailor aboard the hospital ship Mercy about the conduct and duration of a possible conflict, Cheney replied: “If hostilities start, we want to make it absolutely clear that they will be over just as quickly as possible. There will be no holds barred. . . . The only acceptable outcome will be very swift and very total and absolute victory. We won’t settle for anything else.”

At the 101st Airborne Division, Powell told a soldier who asked if Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might withdraw from Kuwait: “I don’t know. I’ll let the political leaders figure that out. I hope he does. I’d like to see this thing solved peacefully. . . . But he’s proved to be a tough person. He’s a very aggressive man.”

Cheney and Powell reassured the troops at each stop of strong public support at home and sympathized with their separation from their families during the holidays. Powell in particular was treated as a celebrity and was constantly pressed to sign autographs and pose for pictures. He even autographed one paratrooper’s skateboard. “This is a great morale booster; I think it’s wonderful he’s come,” said Sgt. Connie Summers of Duluth, Minn.

At each of Cheney’s stops--a forward Marine combat unit, the hospital ship and the cruiser Bunker Hill--the defense secretary was asked whether U.S. forces would be ready to fight after the Jan. 15 U.N. deadline for Hussein to withdraw his troops from Kuwait.

Cheney told members of the 1st Marine Division at a camp just 50 miles south of the Saudi-Kuwaiti border that the huge American expeditionary force would be prepared to fight soon after the Jan. 15 deadline.

The questions arose in part because of comments earlier in the week by Lt. Gen. Calvin A. H. Waller, deputy commander of U.S. forces in the region, that the United States would not be ready to launch an attack until mid-February because heavy Army tank units are still en route from Europe.

While Cheney sought to keep alive the threat of early military action, some field commanders endorsed Waller’s advice to his superiors that any offensive be delayed until the full 430,000-man U.S. force is in place and prepared to do battle.

“I’d go along with that,” said Brig. Gen. Tom Draude, assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division, as his troops were demonstrating for Cheney how light infantry can stop a tank. “I don’t think you should initiate anything as critical as combat until you’re as ready as you can be.”

Cheney and Powell had been through two days of high-level briefings with senior U.S. commanders and Saudi officials before leaving opulent quarters in a government guest palace at 8 a.m. Saturday for the 12-hour tour of American troop positions.

The units they visited were among the most combat ready in the U.S. gulf force, and many of them were among the first to arrive in the region. The questions Cheney and Powell faced from the troops ranged from sophisticated, highly analytical queries to nuts-and-bolts questions about hardware and pay issues.

One sailor aboard the cruiser Bunker Hill asked Cheney whether the multinational alliance arrayed against Iraq would crumble if Hussein withdrew most but not all of his troops from Kuwait. The defense secretary replied: “We’ve got 27 nations that have sent forces to the gulf or to Saudi Arabia. They came with varying degrees of commitment. . . . Some are committed only to deterring further aggression. Others are committed to rolling him back if we have to.”