US soldiers in the Gulf are "prepared" for a possible military offensive against Iraq but President George W. Bush has still not made a decision to go to war, the forces' commander said.
"We are prepared to do whatever we are asked to do," General Tommy Franks Saturday told reporters when asked if US forces in the region were ready for military action now.
"We're prepared to undertake whatever activities and whatever actions we may be directed to take by our nation," he said.
Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to Kuwait during which he chaired a meeting of the US Central Command, Franks said US forces had recently raised their level of activity in Kuwait but emphasized that Bush had not yet decided to take military action against Baghdad.
"Our president has not made a decision to go to war, so it will be pretty hard for me to say this is my last visit before such an occurrence," Franks said. "The decision he has made was to go before the UN and the US Congress," he said of Bush, according to AFP.
"The only course of action that is not available to us is to continue the course of action we've seen over the last 11 years, where we have seen UN Security Council resolutions, one after the other, defied and flouted, while we have seen (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein continue in that regime to develop weapons of mass destruction, to support terrorism, to oppress his own people and so forth."
Franks, who met Kuwait's defense and interior ministers and minister of state for foreign affairs, said he would go on to the United Arab Emirates, staying in the region for two more days before flying back to Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.
"I don't believe our activity in the region has been characterized as anything that resembles what we've seen over the past 11 years," Franks said. "We're not in the same situation that we have been in over the past 11 years. In fact we have increased the amount of training that we do with forces of friendly nations in the region, and I would anticipate that we continue to do that," he said. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
