Air Campaign to Go On Awhile, Bush Says; Silent on Land War : Strategy: White House worries that Iraqi reports of civilian casualties could risk support for allies. No decision on timing of ground assault has been made, official indicates.

The massive aerial campaign against Iraq “will continue for awhile,” President Bush said Monday after conferring with key military advisers just back from Saudi Arabia. But he drew a curtain of silence around the timing of a ground assault.

“We are going to take whatever time is necessary to sort out when a next stage might begin,” Bush declared after discussions with Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

White House officials, meanwhile, demonstrated concern that Iraqi reports of civilian casualties were finding a sympathetic audience and could jeopardize international support for the allied position. They cited Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s statement over the weekend that the allied effort may be going too far as evidence of the success of Saddam Hussein’s “propaganda and (public relations) battle.”

But most attention in Washington was focused Monday on whether--and when--a ground assault may begin. The decision appears to hinge on determining the point at which the three-week-old air assault has achieved maximum results.

Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Kelly, director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seemed to signal that there are military reasons to continue the air campaign.

“We have not passed, I think, what’s been referred to as a point of diminishing returns in the air campaign,” he said.

The bombardment is being used to destroy, one by one, as many of Iraq’s 4,200 tanks, 2,800 armored personnel carriers and 3,100 artillery pieces as possible before they can be used against allied forces on the ground.

Kelly said 750 tanks--and possibly twice that number--had been wiped out, along with 600 armored personnel carriers and 650 artillery pieces. He added that 90% of the lines of communication between headquarters in Baghdad and forces in the field have been cut.

Despite the notes of caution coming from the White House and the Pentagon about the timing of a ground war, military officials said over the weekend that the point of “diminishing returns” could be reached by early next week. For the last several days, allied war-planes have been flying 750 bombing runs a day against Iraqi troops and armor in Kuwait and southern Iraq.

A White House official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Bush was indicating that no decision on the start of the ground war had been made and that “we’re not ready to do anything at this stage.”

But, the official added, “24 hours from now we could determine the time is right for us.”

Bush dispatched Cheney and Powell to the Gulf for what was believed to be a final, on-the-scene assessment before making his decisions on the next steps in the war to push Hussein’s entrenched Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

“I’m very satisfied, having heard their briefing, with the progress in the war. The air campaign has been very, very effective and it will continue for awhile,” Bush told reporters.

But, he said, he would not be drawn into public debate over when to move from the air war to a battle on the ground.

“I will not be discussing it any further,” the President said. “And I can guarantee you that there should be no further discussion of that for a lot of reasons, including the safety of our own troops--and that comes first, as far as I’m concerned--and the coalition forces. Their safety is paramount in my mind.”

Bush spoke to reporters briefly at the end of the 90-minute meeting as he escorted Cheney, Powell, Secretary of State James A. Baker III, National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and other aides from the meeting in the White House family quarters back to the Oval Office.

Pausing at the edge of the Rose Garden on a brisk afternoon, the President appeared to go out of his way to emphasize that advanced U.S. technology is being used--technology that helps avoid hurting civilians.

“I would be remiss if I didn’t reassure the American people that this war is being fought with high technology,” Bush said. “There is no targeting of civilians.”

The war, he said, “has gone far better in terms of casualties than I had hoped, though we mourn the loss of every single member of our armed forces and of the coalition forces. My heart still goes out to the families.”

As of Monday, the Pentagon said, 12 service personnel have died in the conflict, 12 had been wounded, 28 were listed as missing and eight were believed to be prisoners of war. The Pentagon has not said how many Iraqi troops may have been killed or wounded.

At the White House, meanwhile, Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater reflected a sudden unease at the White House over the impact of Iraqi reports of civilian casualties and damage. “The propaganda and the PR battle is where Saddam is scoring his points,” Fitzwater said.

“There’s no question that there has been collateral damage, but we don’t think it’s been very extensive. But he has had a very extensive PR effort, and it’s disturbing to find this evidence that somebody is buying it,” he added.

Indeed, he said, “statements by President Gorbachev of civilian damage” indicate that the Iraqis “have had some success in that area.” On Saturday, Gorbachev said the allied attacks threaten to destroy Iraq and thereby “exceed the mandate” set by the United Nations to liberate Kuwait.

In reviewing the report from Cheney and Powell, Bush also said he had been reassured about the morale of the troops.

“They know why they’re there. They are gung-ho about it,” he said. “Altogether I feel much better after this briefing. I’ve always felt confident we were on the right path; I feel even more so now after this briefing. And so we will just continue down this road.”

The President also said, as he has in the past, that the timetable for the ground war would be decided in the Oval Office. “We are not going to suit somebody else’s timetable, whether it is in Baghdad or any place else,” he said.

He added that if his military commanders “come to me and say there needs to be another phase, then I will then make that decision, because that is a decision for the President of the United States.”

Reflecting what some feel is a prevailing view in Congress, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a luncheon with reporters that “as long as the air war is making a significant contribution to reducing the capability of the enemy, we should pursue it.”

But, he added: “Some kind of ground effort is inevitable. . . . (Iraqi troops) are going to have to come out and fight our tanks. And when they do, they’re going to be facing our planes as well as our tanks.”

White House and Pentagon officials have said the decision will be based on more than simply a review of the number of Iraqi tanks or other weapons still operating and will take into consideration reports from the U.S. and allied commanders on the strengths and weaknesses of the foe.

“There is always going to be a gray area. No commander who has ever fought a battle was completely sure on the eve of that battle. That’s the loneliest time on earth, when you are a commander and you’re about to go,” Kelly said.

“But we will be in a position to make a very valid estimate and make very, in my view, solid recommendations . . . if it’s decided that that time has come,” he said.

“Right now we’ve got plenty of targets, we’ve got plenty of airplanes, we have sufficient munitions to drop from those airplanes, so it seems to me that the wise thing to do would be to keep on doing what we’re doing and continue to attrit (weaken) the enemy.”

Times staff writers John M. Broder and Robert Jackson contributed to this report.