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Demonstrators
march around the White House in Washington on October 26
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WASHINGTON,
October 28 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - If Washington orders an
attack against Iraq, the Pentagon expects to mobilize about as many
reservists as it did during the Gulf war in 1991, the New York Times reported
Monday, October 28.
During
the Gulf War some 265,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves
were summoned to active duty, the daily reported.
Officials
had long maintained that a future military engagement in Iraq likely
would call for fewer troops than in the first Gulf War, Agence
France-Presse (AFP) reported.
But
military experts now say that large numbers of Guard and Reserve troops
would be needed to protect military bases overseas and at home - above
and beyond forces assigned to combat roles, the Times reported.
The
troops, especially those in the National Guard, would also be expected
to play an important role in protecting an array of potential terrorist
targets in the United States, including power plants, transportation
hubs, medical centers and factories.
The
Times said that during the war in 1991, the American government
did not have such significant fears of terrorist strikes against
overseas bases or targets in the United States. It added that this time,
according to officials, the threat of terrorist attacks would become
more critical, rising above even the elevated threat levels since Sept.
11.
“One
expert familiar with the Pentagon’s planning said a significant
difference between any new military offensive against Iraq and the
earlier gulf war was “the need for greater force protection around the
world” and a dramatically expanded role for the military in homeland
security,” reported the paper.
According
to the newspaper, a reserve call-up is just one important variable that
military planners are weighing as they refine war strategy for a
possible confrontation with Iraq.
The
diplomatic dance going on in New York over details of a United Nations
Security Council resolution governing the course of international
weapons inspections in Iraq has a direct impact on the timing of troop
deployments and, ultimately, the start of any offensive.
Much
of the heavy equipment recently deployed to the Persian Gulf region
would probably remain while inspections were under way, because it is
more difficult to move in bulk and with speed, according to Pentagon
officials, the Times said.
In
another development, Saudi army chief of staff Lieutenant-General Saleh
al-Muhaya met in Riyadh Monday with the chairman of the U.S. joint
chiefs of staff, General Richard B. Myers, the official Saudi Press
Agency said.
Myers,
who arrived Sunday evening, was expected to hold talks with Saudi
leaders on the regional situation.
The
SPA gave no details of Myers’s talks, but they come against a backdrop
of mounting U.S. pressure on the U.N. Security Council to take decisive
action to disarm Iraq.
Saudi
Arabia, which houses a major U.S. air base at Al-Kharj, 80 kilometers
(50 miles) south of the capital, has expressed opposition to U.S.
military action against Iraq.
U.S.
media have reported contingency plans to move the base of U.S. Gulf
operations to the neighboring emirate of Qatar in the face of the Saudi
opposition.
Muhaya
said in remarks published Monday that there “has been no change in the
numbers or tasks of the U.S. forces present in the kingdom.”
He
told Al-Jazira newspaper “the position of the U.S. troops has
not changed for the last 10 years and its duties are limited to
monitoring the no-fly zone over southern Iraq.”
There
are some 5,000 U.S. troops, mostly air force, stationed in the Prince
Sultan air base, who were allowed to use the resources and the
communications and planning center at the base during the war on
Afghanistan.
On
Saturday, October 26, about 50,000 chanting anti-war protesters circled
the White House to protest a possible U.S.-led attack on Iraq after a
rally in which speakers denounced President George W. Bush as a war
criminal.
Many
in the crowd - estimated by organizers at 100,000 - beat on drums and
carried signs such as “Drop Bush, not Bombs.” They chanted slogans
reminiscent of the huge anti-Vietnam war protests of the 1960s and
1970s, such as “1-2-3-4, we don’t want your racist war.”
Similar
protests took place in other U.S. cities and elsewhere around the world.
Organizers
from the coalition of mostly leftist groups had expected the rally to be
the largest since the Vietnam war era. Speakers, including veteran civil
rights advocate Jesse Jackson, also compared the new protest movement to
the massive nonviolent campaign led by Martin Luther King Jr in the
1960s to end discrimination against blacks.
“We
are killing a million and a half people through genocidal sanctions,”
he said. “We are destroying international law, destroying the U.N.,
destroying the Constitution, the Bill of Rights.”
Bush
insists Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has developed chemical and
biological arms in violation of UN resolutions he agreed to as part of
the price for the ceasefire ending the 1991 Gulf War and is seeking
nuclear weapons as well. Iraq denies the charges.
