Major Questions Emerging About the War

Here are some of the major questions that have developed during the first week of the the Gulf War:

Question: What has happened to the Iraqi air force?

Answer: It is largely intact, its aircraft protected in reinforced shelters. Military experts believe that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein may be conserving his air power for an attack on U.S. troops once a ground war begins. U.S. Maj. Gen. Burton R. Moore said Monday that in more than 8,000 sorties flown by the allies since the outbreak of war, allied forces have shot down only 17 Iraqi planes. Officials have provided no firm estimates of Iraqi aircraft believed destroyed on the ground. Iraq has an estimated 700 combat aircraft, although many are older planes that are not considered matches technologically for the allied fighters.

Q: How many Scud missiles does Iraq have remaining, and is it capable of using chemical or biological weapons against the allies?

A: Military estimates have put the number of Iraqi Scuds as high as 500, but it is unclear whether Iraq has the ability to mount a chemical or biological warhead on a missile, and how many launchers remain active. U.S. military planners assume that Iraq can use chemical weapons during battlefield clashes. One of the prime objectives of the allied air war has been to reduce Iraq’s chemical war-making abilities.

Q: How many Iraqis have died in the war, and what is the state of civilian and military morale in Iraq?

A: It is unclear how many Iraqis have died, but one Iraqi report on Sunday put the number at 40 civilians and 31 military personnel. The allied air campaign has apparently minimized the number of civilian casualties through surgical strikes using high-technology weaponry that can hit specific targets. The West has received mixed reports on the state of morale, with Kuwaiti resistance groups saying Iraqi troop morale is failing, while Western reporters in Baghdad said civilians are upset but not panicked.

Q: How close are the allies to launching a ground attack on Iraqi positions in Kuwait?

A: That isn’t precisely known. According to military experts, before the United States and its allies begin a ground assault on entrenched Iraqi troops in Kuwait, allied aircraft still must take out Iraqi roads, supply depots, communications links, missiles and antiaircraft batteries. “At the present time, I would say there are probably (in Kuwait and Iraq) some of the most formidable defenses that you could ever run into anywhere,” said Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, U.S. field commander in the Persian Gulf. Top military officials believe that President Bush will be content to wear down the Iraqis with continuing air attacks before mounting a costly and bloody ground invasion of Kuwait. For security reasons, they won’t give any specifics on U.S. plans.

Q: What has become of the Republican Guard, Hussein’s elite fighting force?

A: The U.S. military hasn’t said. Although initial television reports indicated that allied bombing raids had decimated the ranks of the Republican Guard, Iraq’s crack fighting force, allied military officials have cautioned that the Guard remains potent and dangerous. The Guard, eight divisions each manned by 14,000 troops, is dug into entrenched positions well behind the front lines. Destruction of the Guard is believed to be a key to avoiding or winning a ground war, because the troops are the most highly motivated, best educated and best equipped in the Iraqi army. The Guard’s three armored divisions field many of Iraq’s best battle tanks, the Soviet-built T-72, considered a match for American M-1A1 tanks.

Q: Are there any continuing diplomatic efforts to end the war?

A: No one has said for sure. Bush has asserted that there will be no lull in allied bombing until Saddam Hussein orders his troops to lay down their arms. Iran said Monday that nonaligned nations, including India, Yugoslavia and Algeria, would launch a peace initiative, although it provided no details. In recent days Egypt has dispatched top government officials to Syria, one of the Arab states battling Iraq in the U.S.-led coalition, and to Libya, which in the past has supported Hussein. A leading government-owned newspaper in Egypt reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak may seek a cease-fire in the six-day-old war to permit Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. However, a spokesman for the Egyptian mission at the United Nations denied the report. Iraq, meanwhile, rejected a Soviet peace proposal, saying it should have been directed to the United States.

Q: How well-prepared is the United States to provide medical treatment for U.S. soldiers who are wounded in the gulf region?

A: That’s a subject of debate. The 13,200 doctors at the nation’s 172 veterans’ medical centers say they are bracing for the onslaught of casualties that would be sure to accompany a ground war in the gulf. Contingency plans call for clearing 9,000 beds in 24 hours, 17,000 in 72 hours, and 25,000 in a month. However, Rich Heilman of the 1.1-million member Disabled American Veterans says VA hospitals will have trouble caring for large numbers of wounded. “They’ve been hard-pressed for a number of years,” Heilman said.