Bush Will Send Troops to Kuwait : Persian Gulf: About 2,400 soldiers are to be deployed over next three weeks. White House says it is sending a message to recalcitrant Saddam Hussein.

The Bush Administration will dispatch 2,400 Army troops to Kuwait in a move intended by the White House as a gesture of resolve against newly aggressive stirrings by Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, U.S. officials said Friday.

Pentagon spokesman Pete Williams said the troops would participate in a “field training exercise” that would supplement previously announced naval and amphibious exercises that U.S. forces will be conducting with the Kuwaiti military over the coming weeks. He said he did not know how long the soldiers would remain in the Persian Gulf emirate.

But other Administration officials said the move was intended to “send a message” warning Iraq against its use of military force against Shiite Muslim civilians in the nation’s south and potentially against Kuwait itself.

In outlining the rationale for the move, Administration officials emphasized its value in reassuring jittery Kuwaitis--whose small nation was invaded two years ago by Hussein’s Iraqi army, which was then ousted by an allied military coalition--and making clear to Baghdad that the United States is taking seriously Hussein’s refusal to comply with the U.N. resolutions that dictated the terms for an end to the Gulf War.

“The rationale for it is the same as sending the Patriots to Kuwait,” a White House official said. “Saddam Hussein has begun to talk about Kuwait as a 19th province again, and these are some precautionary measures.”

Even before Friday’s announcement, the White House had taken other steps to shore up the U.S. military presence in the region.

The Army sent a battery of Patriot antimissile missiles to Kuwait, supplementing six Patriot batteries already in the region. Each battery has eight missiles.

The aircraft carrier Kennedy cut short scheduled shore time in the Caribbean after it was ordered to begin making its way eastward. It is now conducting exercises in the Atlantic, but military officials have made clear that it remains ready to continue its journey to the Middle East if necessary. Two other aircraft carriers are already within striking distance of Iraq.

The two Army units to be dispatched to the region both took part in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. The Ft. Hood, Tex.-based 1st Cavalry was among the first U.S. tank divisions dispatched to Saudi Arabia in October, 1990. It played the role of division-in-reserve as the ground war began, and did not see heavy combat.

The Ft. Campbell, Ky.-based 5th Special Forces Group is an elite unit whose troops were involved in key behind-the-lines operations in Iraq and Kuwait.

One official emphasized the value of the new deployment as a signal of U.S. resolve to stand firm against Iraqi military attacks against the Shiite populations in southern Iraq, not far from the Kuwaiti border.

As the West began to denounce that aggression as a violation of a U.N. resolution, Administration officials last week described the conflict in the south as the most likely flash point for a new clash between Washington and Baghdad. The Administration said it intends to seek U.N. approval of a new resolution making clear that continuing Iraqi repression of the Shiites could provoke a military response.

Nevertheless, in its choice of soldiers to send to Kuwait, the White House apparently has picked a less confrontational gesture than it might have made. Rather than the rapid-deployment Army troops of the 82nd Airborne, the soldiers are from units less primed to take part in any kind of immediate intervention.

And while the Iraqi army remains but a skeleton of the force it represented before the Gulf War, such a small number of U.S. troops could function as no more than a tripwire.

An Administration official was careful Friday to minimize the prospect of another Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. “There’s been a lot of talk from Saddam,” the official said, “but no real sign of any buildup.”

In confirming the deployment plans, the Pentagon said Friday night that a U.S. Army battalion task force will be sent to Kuwait to participate in a military exercise dubbed Intrinsic Action.

The battalion’s exercise is in addition to the previously announced Navy and Marine exercises, code-named Eager Mace and Native Fury, and are intended to further demonstrate Washington’s commitment to the security and stability of the Gulf, a Pentagon statement said.

Advance units will begin moving next week and will be flown to the Gulf region over the next three weeks. They will include two mechanized infantry companies and two armored companies, along with their support units, from the 1st Cavalry Division.

A task force headquarters group from the 1st Cavalry will also be sent to provide command and control, along with Special Forces troops from the 5th Special Forces Group. The Pentagon said about 2,400 soldiers will ultimately be involved. At the peak of the Gulf War, about 527,000 American troops were in the region.

The task force will be sent without military hardware but will use equipment already positioned in Kuwait, the Pentagon said.

The U.S. Central Command, located at McDill Air Force Base, Fla., is responsible for U.S. forces in the Gulf region and is in charge of the exercise, according to the Pentagon.

For President Bush, the decision to make a new military gesture followed a painful week in which the initial political flush from once again staring down Hussein gave way to humiliation as it became clear that the White House had won no more than a hollow victory.

Although Bush had first claimed that Hussein had “caved in” in a standoff over whether U.N. inspectors would be granted access to Iraq’s Agriculture Ministry in a search for weapons documents, the White House later acknowledged that the Iraqi leader had “won” on at least one key point of dispute.

Not only had Hussein overridden a U.S. demand that an American be included on the inspection team, U.S. officials acknowledged, but he also succeeded in thwarting what had been intended as a surprise search. Even as a replacement U.N. team finally began its room-to-room search of the facility Tuesday, the White House conceded that the three-week forced postponement had made it all but impossible that the documents could be found.

For now, at least, both Democrat Bill Clinton and a bipartisan consensus in Congress have made clear that they would support military action against Iraq if it proved necessary to enforce the U.N. sanctions.

Administration officials emphasized last week that such a decision would not come for days, possibly weeks. But one Bush adviser suggested that it could be politically preferable to act with such strong support than to remain in the position the White House found itself in last week, when Democratic vice presidential candidate Al Gore mocked the Administration for permitting Hussein to “thumb his nose” at the United States.

Jehl reported from California, where he is traveling with President Bush, and Grace reported from Washington.