WASHINGTON — As the debate intensifies on whether to invade Iraq, the Pentagon has quietly positioned its forces to be ready to move against Saddam Hussein in as little as two months.
Although President Bush continued his efforts Monday to rally support for a campaign against the Iraqi leader, a military strike is unlikely to happen that quickly, observers say. The administration, for instance, has yet to formally request basing and flyover rights from the dozens of countries on which a military operation would depend.
Unlike the last time it invaded Iraq, however, the military seems prepared to act. The U.S. has forces, weaponry and supplies to equip 30,000 troops already in the region, while 150,000 or more fully equipped troops who would be needed to mount a full-scale invasion could be routed to the region well before Christmas.
The ability to move quickly into Iraq is not the result of any recent overt moves of troops or equipment. Although the military has recently signed big contracts for commercial air and sea cargo space and has been replenishing its bomb supplies, it appears to have engaged in relatively little activity at its bases and camps in the countries surrounding Iraq that had not been in the works for several years.
The military has not only maintained its bases throughout the Persian Gulf since 1991 but has expanded them and built new ones. And it has made vast improvements in its ability to transport heavy materiel by sea and air.
The Bush administration's diplomacy on an Iraq campaign is moving at an urgent pace. On Monday, Bush met in Detroit with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who has been among the most upfront of the U.S. allies in opposing military action against Hussein.
Earlier in the day, Bush made a series of telephone calls seeking to round up support. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Bush spoke with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer of Turkey, which could be a key staging area for a military offensive against Iraq; Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who also is president of the European Union; and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Although there was little public indication of growing support, Fleischer said "budding" signs suggest that Bush's effort is making headway.
Since its difficult preparation for the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the U.S. needed six months to move its ground forces across the world and mass them on Iraq's borders, the military has steadily increased the number of troops and amount of equipment it maintains at the ready in and around the Persian Gulf.
