Clinton to Deploy 5,000 Troops to Reinforce Warnings to Iraq

The Clinton administration said Friday that it will send 5,000 U.S. Army troops to Kuwait and 18 F-16C fighters to Saudi Arabia to reinforce U.S. warnings to Iraq, as top officials sought to coax reluctant U.S. allies to support more vigorous military action.

Officials said that the decision to send the troops, announced late Friday evening, was intended to underscore warnings to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that Washington is serious about its demands that he follow international restrictions imposed after the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

But they also said that no new military strike against Iraq is likely before next week. Instead, the White House said, it is sending Defense Secretary William J. Perry to Europe and the Middle East this weekend to try to shore up support among U.S. allies for the hard-line stance that Washington has adopted since Hussein attacked his country’s Kurdish north late last month.

That decision reflected growing concern among top policy-makers about the reluctance of America’s traditional allies in both regions to support renewed U.S. military strikes against Iraq.

Officials said that the 5,000 troops being sent this weekend were dispatched as a demonstration of U.S. resolve, not the advance column of an invasion force.

The administration also toned down its rhetoric after a surprise signal from Baghdad that U.S. warnings have been effective.

Iraq announced that, as a start toward possible negotiations, it would stop firing missiles at U.S. and other allied aircraft patrolling “no-fly” zones in the country. But it later threatened to revoke the offer if the allies resumed their patrols.

U.S. officials said they found the Iraqi offer “an encouraging move toward reducing tensions” but gave no indication that the administration was willing to call off the expected round of military attacks.

“If it’s true, this would be a wise move on Saddam’s part,” Pentagon spokesman Kenneth H. Bacon said. “We don’t know what this means. However, we will continue to move forces into the region as necessary to protect our interests.”

The 5,000 Army troops were ordered to Kuwait from Fort Hood, Tex., to participate in an exercise. The Pentagon also continued to move more warships and aircraft into position.

There was no indication how long the troops would remain in Kuwait or how they would be used if the United States launches an attack. Planners have pointed to air strikes as the most likely tactic.

Pentagon officials said that the troops would join some 1,200 other soldiers who have been engaging in war games in Kuwait since August. The games are scheduled to end in mid-December.

Army officers said that the brigade consists of two “maneuver battalions” of between 800 and 900 soldiers each, to man tanks and armored vehicles and a field headquarters unit and units trained to operate self-propelled artillery and shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles.

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The deployment also includes service and support personnel, such as maintenance and refueling teams. “You’ve got 2,000 to 2,500 ‘shooters’ and an equal number of supporters,” said Lt. Col. Ray Whitehead, an Army spokesman.

Although the administration did not shelve its plans for a military strike, it took a far more low-key tone Friday than it had earlier this week, when U.S. officials aimed a barrage of hawkish rhetoric at Hussein and began announcing the movement of ships and aircraft.

The Pentagon sent a flight of 18 additional F-16C fighters to Saudi Arabia Friday but officials made clear that it would take at least a few days for the warplanes--and a flight of eight F-117A Stealth fighters that arrived on Friday--to ready themselves for action.

The White House, responding to critics’ charges that President Clinton has not made a good enough case to the public for additional military action in Iraq, announced plans for him to spell out formally both his rationale and his goals for current U.S. policy.

White House officials said the president will lay out the case today in his weekly radio address. And aides said that he may have more to say in the days ahead.

The White House rejected suggestions Friday that Clinton had not done to explain his actions. “We developed a response quickly and the president kept the American people informed along the way,” White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said.

The decision to send Perry to Europe and the Middle East reflected growing concern among top policy-makers about the reluctance of traditional allies to support the U.S. campaign against Iraq.

Perry is expected to fly to three Middle Eastern countries--Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait--over the weekend and then to fly to Turkey. He plans to return via London, where he will meet with British and French officials.

U.S. officials conceded that Perry’s mission is apt to be an uphill battle. France has been cool to the new U.S. military push.

And Saudi Arabia and Turkey both have refused to permit U.S. forces to launch military strikes against Iraq from bases on their soil.

The Iraqi announcement that it would not fire at allied warplanes was made by the country’s deputy prime minister, Tarik Aziz, who said the move had been suggested by Russia in an effort to defuse the crisis. Earlier, the state-run Iraqi news agency called for “a dialogue” with the United States.

Although a serious peace offer from Baghdad would be welcome, top administration officials left no doubt that they are skeptical about Hussein’s sincerity. “Frankly, Saddam has a lot he needs to do to get himself back in the good graces of the international community,” State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said on CNN.

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Besides F-16s and F-117As, the United States has two Navy aircraft carrier battle groups in the area along with four B-52 bombers, hundreds of fighters and other warplanes and a series of Army Patriot missile batteries.

The F-16s dispatched to Saudi Arabia on Friday technically are intended to replace a group on duty that is scheduled to be rotating out this month. Officials said, however, that both groups would remain in Saudi Arabia until the current confrontation is over.

The new U.S. military buildup in the Persian Gulf area is the third since the Gulf War, when the allies sent about 500,000 troops to push Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

In October 1994, the Clinton administration sent a military force of 250 warplanes, 12 Navy ships and 13,000 troops to the region after Iraq’s Republican Guard threatened to invade Kuwait again, and sent a smaller force a year later after a similar incident.

In both cases, the Iraqis eventually retreated but the United States kept aircraft and equipment in the area.