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U.S. shifts command post closer to Iraqi battlefront
©Associated Press WASHINGTON -- The four-star Army general who would run a U.S. war against Iraq said Tuesday he will oversee the deployment soon of a new command post in the Persian Gulf. The post will provide closer communication links between Gen. Tommy Franks' battle staff and the naval, air and land commanders arrayed on Iraq's periphery. "Does it give us increased capability? You bet," Franks said at a Pentagon news conference. Franks, who is commander of U.S. Central Command, said that while President Bush has not decided whether to use military force against Iraq, U.S. forces are prepared to carry out whatever mission they are given. "In fact, that's what our planning activity is all about," he said. Franks, whose headquarters is at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, was in Washington to meet with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Franks said they discussed the general's recent visit to the gulf region. Asked to comment on the uncertainty over resuming U.N. weapons inspections in Iraq, and whether the Bush administration would attack Iraq without full U.N. backing, Franks said the "best case" would be to build an international coalition of forces to take on Iraq. "My sense is that we have a great many friends, partners and allies who see the situation the same way we do. And I'll leave it at that," he said. Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday to attend a joint planning committee meeting with other U.S. officials and their Saudi counterparts. Also at the talks were Peter Rodman, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs; U.S. Ambassador Bob Jordan; and Lincoln Bloomfield, the assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs. U.S. forces at Prince Sultan Air Base in central Saudi Arabia maintain an elaborate air command center that could be used to coordinate strikes against Iraq. Because it is not clear whether the Saudi government would allow that, Franks has established a similar capability at al-Udeid air base in neighboring Qatar. Starting in late November, Central Command will pack up and ship to al-Udeid a set of modular buildings and communications equipment designed to replicate the command functions of Franks' permanent headquarters in Florida. The deployable command post will be used in an exercise in early December called Internal Look, Franks said. It will test communications links with the land, sea and air components that make up Central Command forces in the gulf region -- namely, Army commanders in Kuwait, air commanders in Saudi Arabia and the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain. Up to 1,000 troops will operate the command post at al-Udeid, which already is hosting more than 3,000 U.S. troops and numerous support aircraft. Sgt. Charles Portman, a Central Command spokesman, said 600 of the troops would come from base headquarters in Tampa and the 400 others from the rest of the services at other bases under the command of CentCom. Franks said he has not decided whether the command post and its staff would return to Florida when the Internal Look exercise is finished in mid December. Other officials have said that if the United States appeared headed toward war in Iraq, the command post probably would stay. Franks said he intends to be at al-Udeid for a week to 10 days. The entire Internal Look exercise -- including the movement of people and equipment over there and back -- may take four to six weeks, he said. Franks also noted that 700-800 U.S. forces are in and around Djibouti to work with the military forces of friendly countries in the Horn of Africa. His comments suggested that he has put or is planning to send in another 700-800 Marines, but other officials said the only additions in Djibouti would be a few hundred members of the headquarters staff of the 2nd Marine Division. Franks said U.S. forces in Djibouti are part of the global war on terrorism. "There are going to be some friendly nations, and we're going to want to work with them in order to help them help themselves get over the terrorist problem," Franks said. "And we also said it may be necessary from time to time to coerce others to get rid of the terrorist problem. "Well, as we have better refined and defined our relationships and what we're looking at, it seems to make sense to us to put this capability, Marine capability, in the vicinity of Djibouti to work with countries in the Horn of Africa." -- Information from Times staff writer Paul De La Garza was used in this report.
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