-Caveat Lector- U.S. Prepared to Pay 'High Price' to Oust Saddam
Mon Mar 31, 5:16 PM ET By Jim Wolf AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar (Reuters) - The United States is prepared to pay a "very high price" in terms of casualties to capture Baghdad and oust President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), a senior U.S. Central Command official said on Monday. "We're prepared to pay a very high price because we are not going to do anything other than ensure that this regime goes away," the official told reporters, adding that U.S. casualties in the 12-day-old war had so far been "fairly" light. "If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties," said the official, who spoke on condition that he not be named. "There will come a time maybe when things are going to be much more shocking," he said, adding: "In World War II, there would be nights when we'd lose 1,000 people. The official said the U.S. hunt for any hidden chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs had been subordinated to the battle to oust Saddam and his associates even though concern over such deadly weapons officially drove Washington to war. "We are doing everything we can to look as we go but the primary mission is now to fight," he said. "And so our efforts are dedicated to doing the business that needs to be done to destroy the people that are fighting against us and get our forces where they need to get to." The official, addressing reporters at the Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar, said the net result of reporting by correspondents with the invasion force was creating a false impression of "constant, ferocious battle." Such reports, he said, created the impression of a much more difficult campaign than it was. "That's not what's going on out there," he added. "It's military action at places primarily of our time and choosing." The official said there were "an awful lot of ominous signs" that Saddam had prepared his forces to use banned chemical weapons. He listed chemical detection equipment, protection suits, new masks and atropine injectors used to protect against nerve agents, all of it found on the battlefield. "To me, as a solider, it indicates that he was preparing his troops for the possibility of chemical operations," the official said. "Will people hesitate to act on those orders? I can only say, I hope so." The official predicted that Saddam would probably mount a "layered" defense of Baghdad, with his best-trained and best-equipped troops, the Republican Guard, arrayed on the outskirts of the city. An inner cordon would most likely include officials of Saddam's ruling Baath party, militia and Republican Guard infantry, he added. The official said the United States was paying a price for having failed to protect uprisings by Shi'te Muslims in Iraq (news - web sites)'s south and Kurds in the north after a U.S.-led alliance drove Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991. "I think we bear a certain responsibility for what we didn't do in 1991 and it's playing itself out on the battlefield," he said. "I mean you let somebody down once, you don't want to let them down twice. I guess I'm being too candid." The official said the United States had underestimated the fear instilled by Saddam loyalists and the difficulty Iraqis would have in revolting until Saddam was known to be out of the picture. "We Americans aren't very good at judging what a totalitarian regime looks like, does, acts like," he said. "I just don't think we're very good at it." But he said he sensed anti-Saddam popular uprisings were "near" in the southern city of Basra and in Nassiriya, midway to Baghdad. "I think once the tipping point comes, it starts to spread," he said. ---------------- News alternatives to US war propaganda: http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news081.htm http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news082.htm http://www.truthout.org/ http://www.aljazeerah.info/ http://www.overthrow.com/ http://globalfire.tv/nj/03en/politics/content.htm <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. 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