Troops heading towards Iraqi border
With Saddam Hussein defying the American demand to quit his homeland, thousands of US and British troops, armoured vehicles and trucks advanced toward the Iraqi border today, positioning themselves to invade on short notice.
Iraq’s rubber-stamp parliament, at a special session, rejected the US ultimatum and reaffirmed support for Saddam. The idea that he would flee into exile “is absolutely unthinkable,” said Speaker Saadoon Hammadi.
Just across Iraq’s southern border, long columns of US. and British troops moved forward through swirling sand to attack-ready positions.
One major deployment involved the US Army’s 3rd Infantry Division – its 20,000 soldiers and thousands of vehicles were ordered to positions close to the border.
One commander led his troops in an American Indian war dance and told the men to remove the US flags that fluttered from the tops of the tanks because “we will be entering Iraq as an army of liberation, not domination.”
Specialist British troops manning 10 Fuch detector vehicles that test for chemical and biological attacks were ready to move forward. The vehicles have sensors that sniff the air and check ground samples for signs of an attack and are equipped with computers which can identify more than 60 killer substances.
Command Warren Fettes, in charge of one of the vehicles, said his men share other soldiers’ fears of being attacked with fatal substances, but also realise how important their work can be to an advancing army or the civilian population.
“We’re here to take these weapons from Saddam Hussein to stop him from using them on innocent civilians,” he said.
In all, about 300,000 troops were within striking distance of Iraq, backed by more than 1,000 warplanes. A strong sand storm swept in Wednesday, affecting several units, hampering movement and visibility.
“We are one day closer to making history,” Colonel Michael Linnington, commander of the 101st Airborne Division’s 3rd Brigade, told his officers.
On board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt in the Mediterranean, combat pilots and others were ordered to snooze through the day Wednesday so they could work through the night.
“It’s time for us to do what we were trained to do,” said Lt. Matt Arnold.
The deadline set by Bush for Saddam to go into exile was 4am in Baghdad (1am Irish time Thursday).
With 12 hours to go, Bush met members of his war council, including Vice President Dick Cheney, Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
The White House sent Congress a three-paragraph formal justification of war that predicted a quick victory but added: “Americans have to be prepared for loss of life.”
At a news conference in Baghdad, Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf accused US officials of lying to their troops about the losses they would suffer. The notion that invading Iraq “will be like a picnic” is ”a stupid idea,” he said.
Dozens of members of Saddam’s Baath party, armed with Kalashnikovs, deployed in clusters of fours and fives across Baghdad. Some stood behind the hundreds of sandbagged fighting positions that have been erected around the capital over the past two weeks.
Around the globe, governments tried to adjust to the seeming inevitability of war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a special Cabinet meeting that his nation is “100%” prepared for a possible Iraqi attack. The military completed a call-up of 11,000 reservists, while citizens sealed rooms in their homes in case there was a chemical or biological attack.
In Rome, Italy’s lower house of parliament approved Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s request to allow coalition forces to use Italian air space and military bases but not for directs attacks on Iraq. The Senate was expected to vote tonight.
In Turkey, the government said it would ask Parliament to let US planes use Turkish airspace in the event of war but would not immediately ask MPs to approve the entry of American troops. Cabinet spokesman Cemil Cicek said a resolution allowing airspace rights would be put to a vote by Thursday.
