The War According to the Chairman : Briefing puts into focus the first week of the showdown

A week has now passed in the Persian Gulf War, and it seems fair to say that on the allied side maybe the best thing to come out of the week was Colin Powell’s clear and succinct briefing at the Pentagon Wednesday.

How’s it going? That’s the question on everyone’s mind. Powell’s answer was tentative but clear: Pretty well. And the answer sounded convincing because Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at least seemed to know what he was talking about. The allied air pounding appears to be on track, he said. And, except for the damaging hits in Tel Aviv, the Iraqi Scud has so far been a loose cannon and the U.S. Patriot anti-Scud missile an efficient defensive weapon.

But doubt and unease will persist, in part because of the uncertainty about Iraqi intentions and capabilities (why and where is that large Iraqi air force hiding?) and in part because no one can possibly know all that is happening.

Into that information vacuum stepped a well-prepared chairman. And his easy and relaxed style stood in merciful contrast to some U.S. military briefers this past week, who wore pained expressions when confronted with an increasingly frustrated press. Except for the one odd moment when the failure to produce actual photographs of bomb damage led to the phrase “trust me”--and a big smile--Powell reviewed the situation by land, sea and air with clarity and precision and gave coherence to a confusing situation.

IN THE AIR: Powell minced no words in saying the allies indeed do have air superiority. But he carefully conceded that if the Iraqi air threat had all but disappeared from the radar screens, it obviously had not vanished from the picture. Are the Iraqis laying low out of strategy, or out of necessity--or some combination of both? That’s the billion-dollar question, and Powell did not answer it but he did leave the impression that it was very much on his mind, too.

The most significant problem, he conceded, has been the Iraqi Scud, despite its now-legendary inaccuracy. Powell described it as more of a terror weapon than a military one and was at pains to praise the Israelis for their continued restraint in the face of continued Scud works.

Perhaps his best news was the assessment of Iraq’s reduced military capabilities with chemical weapons production (the allies did “considerable damage,” he said), with biological (“seriously damaged”) and with nuclear (two operating reactors are “down . . . finished”).

ON THE GROUND: Iraq’s command and control capabilities remain materially intact, he said. This is not surprising since Saddam Hussein had months to dig in and prepare for what he knew might be, if nothing else, a withering allied air assault. He suggested that the air attacks on the Iraqi Republican Guard army had taken a toll but pointed out rightly that “we don’t know how bad it is hurting until it starts to move . . . . “ But, he added, the U.S. strategy was simple: “First we’re going to cut it off, then we’re going to kill it.”

In the meantime, he said of the assembled Iraqi army, “This large force is getting weaker every day.” We have a “tool box” with “a lot of tools,” he said, and there was no rush to mobilize the ground troops. “We are in no hurry.”

IN THE FUTURE: Powell’s apparent talent for stepping back from the latest hot headline and looking coolly at the overall picture will be a large asset in the weeks to come. The need of the press and public to avoid seesawing in emotional ups and downs--euphoria over this latest achievement, gloom and doom over that disappointment--is paramount if the nation is to stay on a reasonably even emotional keel. Powell also usefully reminded everyone of what Operation Desert Storm’s objective is: To get the Iraqis out of Kuwait. Nothing else. That’s worth emphasizing again and again.