U.S. moving troops to Iraq area

WASHINGTON — Twelve years after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait triggered the Gulf War, the U.S. military is moving equipment, troops and communications gear into the region in an indication that President Bush may order an attack to drive Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power.
Pentagon officials decline to discuss troop movements, but there is little doubt among defense experts and a former commander with combat experience in Iraq that military leaders are laying the groundwork for an assault sometime next year should Bush order it.
Bush has said he wants "a regime change" in Baghdad because of Saddam's efforts to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Among the indications of attack preparations, according to experts:

• Army Gen. Tommy Franks has moved the headquarters of the Third Army to Kuwait from Fort McPherson, Ga. The Third Army would form the backbone of any invasion force.

• Army units in Kuwait include so-called quartering parties — soldiers who plan the logistics required for the arrival of large numbers of other troops.

• The Army's crack 101st Airborne Division is being withdrawn from Afghanistan and sent back to Fort Campbell, Ky. The 101st is an air assault division that can deploy anywhere within 36 hours.
"This is a logical thing to do in the context of a coming campaign," said retired Army Col. W. Patrick Lang, former chief Middle East intelligence analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency. "To go to Kuwait, then to Baghdad and beyond, you need high-mobility and the air mobile division should be brought together in its entirely to participate in that."

• The U.S. military has moved communications gear, including a sophisticated air operations center, to Qatar.

• The U.S. Maritime Administration, which monitors the fleet of cargo ships that would be needed to ship heavy Army weaponry overseas, is closely examining the condition of that fleet to ensure it is ready for duty.

• The United States also has built up forces and hangars at Qatar's al-Udeid air base. The base has a 15,000-foot runway, the longest in the region, that can accommodate the Air Force's largest transport planes that can haul everything from bullets to tanks to personnel.