Rudderless in the Gulf
Timmerman, Kenneth R.
flutitter ess itt the Co Our correspondent finds America's forces in the Persian Gulf ready for action—if only the Clinton administration had a policy it were ready to defend. Meanwhile, our...
...We have coffee with Deppe in his stateroom—where the bunk area has exactly the same Spartan metal furniture that all officers receive—and he doesn't disappoint us...
...So we don't deploy until all the other options have failed...
...Navy to fly out to the USS George Washington, flagship of the carrier battle group that was dispatched in extremis to the Gulf last November in response to the latest crisis with Saddam...
...They have all been given absurd orange identity vests...
...This is not going to be a ten-minute drill...
...This is all part of the job," Carnell says...
...I can't remember...
...Don't take any pictures once we get into the DMZ," our guide tells us as we get underway...
...Jason Pippin, a 27-year-old transmission specialist who hails from Eagle River, Alaska...
...It's good to be afraid, to respect your enemy and be damn sure you never underestimate him...
...Security Council—Russia, China, Great Britain, and France...
...When I ask him if he isn't worried sitting only 5o miles away from two of Saddam's army corps staring down at him, he just shakes his head and smiles knowingly: "He doesn't have a chance...
...That puts a real damper on the conversation...
...Now our New World Order Russian "friends" have said they prefer to abandon lucrative American loan guarantees, rather than forego their gas investment in Iran...
...Journalists, courtiers, and military officials mingle, exchanging confidences...
...military presence in Kuwait...
...Major Stuart's commanding officer, Lt...
...Sunday, December 21- With the Kuwait Air Force e have arranged with the U.S...
...If we go belly up in the water, pull the escape hatch here and exit through the rear ramp...
...If Saddam makes another move, or attacks a U2 surveillance flight, I am confidant I will get the orders to use force...
...Saturday, December 20- Bayan Palace, Kuwait T he back entrance of the new U.S...
...The administration calls this keeping Saddam "in the box...
...And don't ask the Major any questions," he adds...
...James Bond," he says, with a selfsatisfied smirk...
...Sure...
...Two hemicycles of bleachers are set up on opposite sides of the hall, and they are a sea of the brilliant white or red checkered headdresses and the flowing black robes that typify the Gulf monarchies...
...The idea is to mate fresh troops flown in by air from the United States with their heavy equipment prepositioned in the region...
...That is not one of our objectives...
...Sunday—On board the USS George Washington ear Admiral Michael G. Mullen is commander of the George Washington battle group...
...Says Pollard: "We are a pretty credible force...
...I ask...
...The U.S...
...Later I learn from an Arab ambassador that the subject of U.S...
...Well, when did the last one occur...
...H000aa...
...After a bit more prodding, we learn he is a native of Zanzibar named Abdillahi Zubeir Rijal...
...and the West...
...efforts to apply pressure on Tehran, and had led German chancellor Helmut Kohl to ridicule U.S...
...And they positively gloated when they compared the attendance sheet at their conference (56 states) to the absence sheet at the U.S.-sponsored Middle East-North Africa economic conference in Qatar the previous month intended to promote Arab-Israeli economic ties...
...The police, like matadors, guide them around the table, allowing them to get a few head shots of each Royal Highness...
...We would like to see one effective crippling strike by the U.S...
...headquarters in New York...
...The last time the United States actually employed these aircraft was on January 17, 1993—a parting gift to Saddam from George Bush...
...46 February 1998 • The American Spectator Although nothing Mullen says is new or striking, what I find remarkable is the extraordinary disconnect between the diplo-speak coming out of Washington and New York, and the straight no-nonsense approach of the U.S...
...Many citizens of the GCC's six member states (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman) had been hoping the council would become the European Union of the Middle East...
...Ironically, I learned about our redeployment on CNN...
...One is performing a delicate minuet, while the other runs a marching band...
...Navy star pulls up alongside the open helicopter hangar at the Kuwait Air Force side of the international airport, where we are waiting for a ride...
...In November 1983 I drove up from Beirut to Tripoli with a French colleague named Roger Auque, to cover Yasir Arafat's last stand...
...But seventeen years later, Kuwaiti businessmen still cannot invest freely in Saudi Arabia, or Saudis in Oman, and virtually all these Persian Gulf monarchies have border disputes that occasionally erupt into shooting sprees...
...Honing skills...
...Mullen separated out the slower ships from the carrier battle group and set sail at top speed for the "Ditch" (the Suez Canal) along with an Aegis cruiser, the USS Normandy...
...His wheels slam against the flight deck, engines at full throttle, then his engine tubes spit orange and we are blasted with the roar of his afterburners...
...Carriers are part of the Navy's global deterrence strategy...
...It's not our job to make policy, but to enforce it...
...The embargo had a dramatic effect, causing the Iranian currency to lose half its value overnight, and frightening off potential investors...
...All has been calm and quiet...
...When you move 5o power projection aircraft into a region, you change the balance of power...
...How many times has this type of incident occurred...
...That incident is still under investigation...
...No wonder the recent Tehran conference tried to get the Gulf countries to back a statement calling for a U.S...
...If Saddam targeted them with chemical or biological weapons, and landed missiles on Camp Doha, we'd be in a fix...
...We all knew we were going on a cruise when we left port, so we expected it," says Lt...
...I ask...
...Glad that's clear...
...The oil purchases were undercutting U.S...
...They have been prompted to take action by what they perceive as a lack of U.S...
...There was a real surge of adrenaline when we first arrived...
...Do they regret not spending Christmas at home with their families...
...Aircraft from the US S George Washington have been flying into Iraq on air patrol missions as part of Operation Southern Watch, the U.S...
...Eventually they turned the tube toward the Syrian tanks up on the ridge overlooking the camp, plopped in a grenade, and covered their ears as it went off...
...The allies...
...Not that our military wouldn't like to finish off the job started in 1991...
...My French colleague wanted to get a picture of them—firing the mortar—so he tried to egg them on...
...Joe Navratil (who's been terrific until now), hands out a briefing sheet to each of the men, telling them what they cannot say...
...If crew members don't get to them, don't wait...
...Have been any incidents with Iraqi soldiers...
...forces in Kuwait, is sitting in its trenches...
...Bishara has a healthy skepticism of the Iranians, but in Khatami he sees at the very least a facelift, and perhaps a significant shift away from the zealotry and radical policies of the past twenty years...
...Outside, parked in neat rows and regularly serviced by mechanics from civilian contractor ITT, are enough MiAz Abrams tanks, Bradley armored fighting vehicles, M1o7 self-propelled howitzers, trucks, HUMVEES, oil tankers, and assorted logistics vehicles to equip an entire U.S...
...He does it laboriously, noting all the truants, laboring in the love of bureaucracy...
...Whatever happened to Bill Clinton's Russian allies...
...Not often...
...By limy' 4. Tiffillierillilll Thursday, December 18—Camp Doha, Kuwait T hirty-five-year-old Air Force Major Jack Stuart hails from Dallas, Texas, and he loves to fly...
...Under international maritime regulations, the George Washington must remain within its own "box"—in this case Carrier Vehicle Operating Area 4 (or CVOA4), which extends from the Iranian port of Busheir to the island state of Bahrain...
...commanders believe, will take a lot more than just air power...
...It doesn't get more real than it is now," says Johann "Spyglass" Kim of Silver Spring, Maryland...
...The six Gulf state leaders sit around a sextagonal table in the center of a vast new "Liberation Hall" inside the palace complex, each with twenty advisers in rows of plush easy chairs...
...In military terms, this is called "degraded deterrence...
...Cutting off the investment meant reducing Iran's income, and thus its ability to pay for new weapons development...
...Monday, December 22 —On board the USS Normandy Our host on board this Aegis cruiser is the ship's CO, Captain James F. Deppe...
...Sure, a bit...
...If I were home for Christmas, I might squander my time...
...Then the desert becomes greener, trees sprout up, and the beginnings of a settlement begin to take shape: oil storage tanks, a rusty water tower, then a series of huge grain silos...
...What about the UNIKOM soldier wounded last month...
...Their frailty is reinforced after the show, as I wander into the monumental vestibule off Liberation Hall...
...The plane shivers for an instant as it strains against the cable, then the pilot throttles down, a gigantic exhale that releases the tension...
...Our policy in the Gulf may be adrift, subject to criticism from our allies in the region and in Europe, who doubt our resolve and suspect our intentions...
...He is also having a bit of good clean fun with us civilians, seeing if we can keep pace...
...We moved so fast that people back in Washington began calling us the `ghost ship.'" Carrier battle groups present an awesome array of force, which Mullen calmly lays out to us...
...Many countries have mastered bits and pieces of these technologies, but no other nation on earth has succeeded in putting them all together into a coherent, working system...
...Their Royal Highnesses will meet in Kuwait tomorrow and Monday in an effort to forge common policies toward their two powerful neighbors, Iran and Iraq...
...That's often the case these days...
...Do you inspect them...
...They may wind up with gas indigestion...
...military withdrawal from the region...
...market to foreign companies that continued to invest in Iran oil and gas...
...to zero in about three seconds...
...Andy Carnell's answer the best...
...I am happy to learn that my tax dollars are paying to allow the U.N...
...For a split second, it is unclear what is going to happen...
...Despite the sanctions, Saddam has done some amazing things," Pollard says...
...The pilots have a friendly competition," Jack says, "to see who catches the third wire," since that is considered the most safe...
...Commander Steve Faggert hails from Richmond, Virginia, and is our pilot...
...Timmerman/Gulf (Continued from page47) I don't feel we would be here otherwise...
...leadership...
...Colonel Gary "G-Man" Woltering, lays out the steely message the presence of the 49th fighter squadron in Kuwait has sent to Saddam Hussein...
...In May 1995, President Clinton declared a unilateral trade embargo against Iran...
...From 140 m.p.h...
...guide, a dapper, white-bearded gentleman who at first glance is a dead ringer for U.N...
...What are those ships loading over there...
...This was aimed at preventing American oil companies from purchasing Iranian oil—for which they had become the single largest customer...
...43 When I ask if he isn't worried sitting only 50 miles from two of Saddam's army corps staring down at him, he just smiles and says, "He doesn't have a chance...
...Something about his confidence troubles me...
...It happens...
...I marvel at the extraordinary feats of technology that have made this huge floating city possible, from the steam catapults that launch the aircraft, to the sophisticated navigation and radar systems that make air traffic control at Chicago's O'Hare airport look like child's play...
...In other words, make it big, or don't make it at all...
...He also spends a lot of time in training exercises with the United States Army...
...We don life vests and "cranials," crash helmets with ear protectors and goggles, and are waved up the rear ramp of the aircraft...
...My friend is very concerned, because Prince Abdallah has just returned from the Islamic Conference Organization meeting in Tehran, Iran—the other "rogue state" that has 42 February 1998 • The American Spectator prompted our anti-military President Bill Clinton to adopt a chest-thumping policy known as dual-containment...
...The Chinese are still trying to build one, but would rather steal the technology from us...
...When given the choice at the end of Desert Storm, more than ioo,000 Iraqi troops marched toward freedom, surrendering to any American who would have them — including members of the press corps...
...We hit the deck and the tailhook grabs the arresting cable and a rush of adrenaline comes over me as my guts are thrown against the seat restraints as if someone had whacked me from behind with a steel I-beam...
...The American Spectator • February r998 We watch a half dozen fighters come in, quickly falling into the game of tracking which arresting wire they hook...
...Friday, December 18 (evening) —Kuwait City speak by phone with a member of the Saudi royal family whom I have known for several years...
...don't know if I am reassured or deeply worried when I listen to Sgt...
...I spoke to Iraqi soldiers in the 14o degree heat of their desert trenches on the front lines with Iran, and quizzed generals in their air-conditioned bunkers...
...Once our troops arrive at the airport," Pollard says, "they can get their equipment and be out in a matter of hours...
...For some 2o kilometers we follow the black-topped "Moon Road...
...This is the "COD" (Carrier On-board Delivery), otherwise known as a C-2...
...He gets on the bus along with Major Vadim Zaborodko, a tall, pasty-faced Russian flight technician, who tells us he works as an airborne "investigator...
...heavy brigade...
...And for a minute there, he gets Gertz to actually believe his yarn about being the cousin of a country-western singer by the same name...
...to zero in the space of about thirty yards...
...And these are fine young men...
...They bring in food," Zarouba says, with a sly grin...
...Watching...
...The French and British have operated smaller, conventionally-powered carriers for decades, but neither has had the political will or economic might to project power globally...
...will grow weary of trying to contain Saddam, "leaving us to hold the bag...
...Sometimes they practice touch and go landings," Jack says...
...policy a "disaster"—"It is aimed solely at weakening Saddam, just keeping him in a box, not toppling him or eliminating the threat...
...For force to be credible, it must be able to be used...
...flights over Iraq, which UNIKOM has catalogued as a violation of international law...
...Or do the allies...
...He continues to man his army, to repair his vehicles, and to train—all in spite of the lack of oil revenues and spare parts...
...The Normandy has two launch bays, one fore and one aft, each with sixty-one launch tubes...
...If the U.N...
...and an oiler, the USS Seattle...
...With aircraft launches coming every 90 minutes, the Captain must calculate his position well in advance...
...The Stealth is the KENNETH R. TIMMERMAN is the publisher of Iran Brief, a monthly investigative newsletter...
...policy of containing Iran is bankrupt, confused, and poorly articulated...
...weapons inspectors are right, and Saddam is hiding ballistic missiles and biological weapons, then Camp Doha is a target just waiting to be hit...
...His genteel demeanor, however, belies his intent...
...The second crewman, Daniel D. Blouch, 25, of Franklin-town, Pennsylvania, adds: "When we catch the hook, we will decelerate rapidly...
...No, the Americans...
...There is no simple air power solution...
...The KoranWe hit the deck and the tailhook grabs the arresting cable and a rush of adrenaline comes over me as my guts are thrown against the seat restraints...
...After all, except for spot traders no one has made money on Iranian oil in twenty years...
...This perception got them scrambling to conclude military cooperation agreements with the other permanent members of the U.N...
...But as we can see from the radar scopes, which extend deep into Iran and track all aircraft once they leave the ground, Iran is keeping its fighters inside its own airspace, avoiding the Gulf, despite the fact it is in their own backyard...
...We showed up here one week later, and we were flying on the first day," Mullen says proudly...
...In a major feat of civil engineering, the Kuwaitis have built a series of antitank trenches and berms that run the length of the 210-kilometer land border...
...Probably, sir...
...For most of the 1980's, Abdallah Bishara was secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a U.S.-sponsored forum set up in 1980 shortly after the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war...
...It was the eleventh trip this F-117 Stealth fighter pilot has made to the small oil-rich Gulf state, and he knows he will not be going home for Christmas to see his family...
...We think hard about sending our people into harm's way, because if it happens, it's going to be us doing it—not something we will watch on CNN...
...Friday evening—Kuwait City I meet at the Safir Hotel, next to the old U.S...
...Instead of working to subvert their Arab neighbors on the other side of the Gulf, the Iranians promised to cooperate with them...
...Given President Clinton's track record of ordering pinprick retaliatory raids against Iraq, we may need a whole lot more force this time round to get the point across...
...UNIKOM is unbiased and balanced, and this is one of our proudest achievements...
...To make it more difficult for Clinton to apply sanctions, Total cleverly gave a piece of the action to Russia's state-owned Gazprom...
...But then last September in stepped the French to sign a $2 billion contract to develop the South Pars oil and gas field in the Persian Gulf...
...If Saddam Hussein complies with the U.N...
...I let Roger snap pictures for another half minute or so, then yanked him away and started running deeper into the camp...
...All this with a deadpan, matter-of-fact tone...
...We report all such violations to U.N...
...While the singer intones the holy verses, I notice the photographers being lined up by the police between the bleachers...
...He thought it was great fun, and so did they...
...The DMZ stretches five kilometers into Kuwait, and ten kilometers into Iraq, with only camels, sheep, and the 32-nation UNIKOM troops in between...
...But this military commands respect...
...When it catches the wire (number four), the pilot accelerates to full throttle and the engines roar, and then it's like a rubber band snapping in reverse as the plane is whipped down from 140 m.p.h...
...And here, we have two times that...
...Will that hurt his grading...
...This team is a strategic weapon at the orders of our national command authority...
...W e go down to the officer's mess to interview a few pilots and crewmen, but Gertz and I groan when the ship's PAO, Lt...
...One of the first lessons I learned when I began reporting from war zones in Lebanon fifteen years ago was the value of fear...
...He will have grandchildren...
...But that wasn't a practice run...
...We ask if UNIKOM has been tracking Iraqi smuggling...
...There is no regional consensus, no European consensus...
...Pollard faces two Iraqi army corps —6o,000 armed men, organized into three infantry and three mechanized (heavy) divisions—deployed in southern Iraq just 5o or 6o miles away...
...If the George Washington is the newest carrier in the force—bursting into the limelight on its maiden voyage in June 1994 when Clinton White House aides swarmed on board, stealing $46 bathrobes and $2.0 bathtowels with a relish only anti-military zealots can muster—the Normandy's claim to fame stems from its Gulf war service when it launched twenty-six cruise missiles against Iraq, and from the Bosnia campaign two years ago when it launched the thirteen cruise missile strike that finally convinced the Serbs to come to the bargaining table...
...They are docked on the Iraqi side of Oum Qasr, which lies on the Khor Abdallah waterway feeding into the Persian Gulf...
...The cruise missile weapons operator jumps up, but he quickly defers to the Captain...
...To tighten the noose even further, Clinton then signed into law the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act, which allowed him to close portions of the U.S...
...We have a pretty professional relationship with the Iranian forces," Rutherford says...
...The Soviets tried to build carriers and failed...
...After the Liberation, Thyme was back, building the Palace a second time, even more lavishly than the first...
...What is undeniable is that U.S...
...He plays basketball...
...The F-4 whistles and sucks as it adjusts its pitch for recovery...
...Four arresting cables, thick as a man's wrist, stretch across the flight deck to catch the tailhooks of returning planes...
...military men we meet...
...We had gotten a hundred yards or so when the first incoming rounds landed behind us...
...A lone military policeman stands near the door of a private salon where the Emirs are waiting for the courtiers and sycophants to leave, prisoners of their own royal station...
...leadership in the region...
...If not, he will face military options...
...what you've seen on the ground...
...the tag officer, who stands on a ledge hanging out over the water, waves him in...
...And that, U.S...
...There is no simple air power solution...
...When we do firing exercises, he likes to fire the 5-inch guns himself...
...Secretary General Kofi Annan...
...This is what has deterred Iran...
...Then they are shooed out, and the next group rushes in...
...efforts to isolate Iran have suffered major setbacks in recent months...
...Mullen was ordered to join the USS Nimitz battle group, already on patrol in the Gulf, to compel Saddam Hussein to allow U.N...
...And we want a continued U.S...
...To launch aircraft, Rutherford explains, there must be enough wind to create lift...
...resolutions, then this can be resolved peacefully...
...But no matter...
...One of them, royal golden bands encircling his white headdress, beckons to a waiter to approach...
...Right over our heads F-4's and F-18's are taking off, afterburners roaring for the four-second launch that ends with a tremendous gaa-thump1 from the catapult that makes your heart stop and the tables jump...
...Gertz asks...
...The GCC summit is a carefully scripted event...
...To maintain credibility, there comes a time when shots must be fired in anger if the bully is to back off...
...Although little more than a photo op, the opening session of the summit is impressive in its own way...
...f the F-117 pilots are the high frontier of U.S...
...Waiting...
...When Saddam's locusts invaded in August 1990, one of their first targets was the Palace...
...ofi starts our UNIKOM briefing by calling the roll...
...military presence in Kuwait...
...embassy leads onto the grounds of the Emir's palace, which are so vast that shuttle buses circulate every fifteen minutes on a security ring road just to convey the thousands of soldiers, office workers, and visitors who come every day...
...But failing that, we think the U.S...
...Firefighters suited up in silver fire-proof gear wait beneath us, in case of accident...
...weapons inspectors...
...He is close to Crown Prince Abdallah, the virtual ruler of that country ever since his older brother, King Fand, suffered a stroke two years ago...
...If we land in the water, there are two ceiling escape hatches...
...The Iraqis are among the most experienced in this region—and indeed, throughout the developing world—when it comes to military affairs...
...44 February 1998 • The American Spectator is invocation brings the hall to order, if not total silence, with haunting half-tones full of sand and the vast timeless expanses of Araby...
...response has been muted at best...
...The American Spectator • February 1998 Friday, December 19—Along the Iraqi Border ertz and I and a busload of foreign journalists drive up to the Demilitarized Zone between Iraq and Kuwait, which is being monitored by a multinational force known as United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission...
...We are taken up to his quarters, where he pulls out envelopes stuffed with letters from nine- and ten-year-old schoolchildren back in America, sending Christmas greetings to servicemen—something Mullen, and all those we talk to on board the George Washington, appreciate...
...If we lose the Saudis on this one, what's left of our policy of containing Iran's military growth and its export of terrorism will likely suffer an irreparable blow...
...The Iranians trumpeted the three-day conference, which attracted some two dozen heads of state, as their rehabilitation...
...weapons inspectors to return to Iraq...
...This gives us a chance to sharpen our skills...
...If our political masters chose to strike, we have the assets in theater...
...Why, Kofi tells us, part of the UNIKOM mandate is to observe overflights of the border, "including by allied aircraft...
...We are very expensive to deploy, and the Iraqis know it," he says...
...I am sure Sgt...
...During a lull in the fighting, we were walking on the outskirts of a refugee camp and stumbled on a couple of iz-year-old kids playing with a mortar...
...Each carrier can launch fifty strike aircraft...
...Then an F-18 comes down silently, just a bit too high, and misses the fourth wire...
...We spend a lot of time preparing our crew, telling them the truth," Deppe says...
...Somehow, I don't think anyone has told the White House that...
...I n the mid-198o's, I visited a military pilot training school in Iraq, as well as its staff officer war college...
...But as one senior U.S...
...Bishara calls U.S...
...If there is no wind, then the ship has to run at 25 knots or more to generate the wind itself...
...Saddam has a habit of backing down when the Stealth fighters arrive...
...opposition...
...At a meeting of NATO ministers in Brussels two days ago, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright rattled the saber again, vowing that "other options" would have to be considered if Iraq did not comply...
...How many hook landings has Commander Faggert done...
...O'Neill is 6' 1", and has to duck half the time he walks through the carrier, but likes to get his exercise humping up the narrow metal stairs—and there are seventeen decks of them...
...should have some form of dialogue with Iran, he believes, while maintaining the military pressure...
...We exchange military courtesies...
...All this hinges, of course, on our having access to Kuwaiti and Saudi airports...
...Continued on page 87) 47 As one senior U.S...
...The State Depaitment was not amused by the comparison, calling the two conferences "apples and oranges...
...He smiles, then moves back to his spot in the middle of the vast antechamber, alone...
...But they have one shortcoming that undermines all the rest: Sad-dam's soldiers do not believe...
...They are not defending freedom, only their own lives...
...Perhaps, force enough to take down Saddam...
...Just beyond, two large cargo ships heave into sight...
...But the Captain puts it to us straight...
...policy at a photo opportunity in the White House Rose Garden three months earlier...
...Over the past year alone, the U.N...
...Each landing is video-taped and graded...
...The whole ship tightened down...
...But is simply deploying the Stealth enough...
...What works is strength, since that is what Saddam responds to...
...effort to prevent Saddam from moving toward Kuwait...
...Major Stuart returned to Kuwait in late October, at the peak of the standoff between Saddam Hussein and U.N...
...a destroyer, the USS Carney...
...Once the reading is over, the police open the gate and they burst into the meeting hall like bulls set loose at Pamplona...
...Get the hatch off and exit the aircraft...
...When we are thirty seconds from the carrier, the two crewmen sitting with us pump their hands in the air and shout over the drone of the engines "Go-go-go...
...deterrence against Saddam, then Army Colonel Robert C. Pollard Jr., the commander of Camp Doha and of U.S...
...Here sit six of the wealthiest men in the world, who together control perhaps 40 percent of the world's oil, and yet for sixteen years they have been unable to agree on joint policies for their common defense—or even, on common import tariffs...
...The weapons he's got are so ancient, and so poorly maintained, there is no comparison to ours," Pippin says...
...An Iranian ship will come out from time to time and we'll tell them our course and ask them to get out of the way...
...Army Central Command-Kuwait, which was built and lavishly furnished by the Kuwaiti government as a sign of its appreciation for the ongoing U.S...
...Just last month, a UNIKOM soldier was wounded by a shot fired from the Iraqi side...
...The plane eases backward a few feet, releasing the tailhook, and then the pilot throttles up to taxi off the flight deck so the next plane can come in...
...I could get used to this...
...40 February 1998 • The American Spectator i 41 The American Spectator • February 1998 only aircraft in our inventory that was designed with purely offensive missions in mind," Major Stuart points out...
...I tell sailors on their first day that the end game of our profession is rounds on target...
...Crew chief Robert E. Lindstrom, 28, of Hershey, Pennsylvania, gives us the safety briefing...
...America's presence in this region is in the interests of the international community, of world peace, and of safe and secure oil supplies...
...Virtually every year since the liberation of Kuwait, Saddam Hussein has provoked a crisis in the region, and each time the U.S...
...Since he has still not identified himself, I ask him...
...Oddest of all: they are all standing separately, alone and abandoned, for all their royalty powerless to make friends...
...but the poor man—a Pakistani imported laborer—is too frightened to respond...
...After a half-hour wait at the last Kuwaiti police post we are met by our U.N...
...has logged more than 8o separate violations by Iraq of those same resolutions...
...Indeed, the second carrier deployment has had unintended consequences as far as Iran is concerned, which Rutherford and other commanders describe to us: it has kept them in a box as well...
...should keep away and say that they will rely exclusively on the United Nations Security Council...
...But I like Lt...
...Named for Kuwaiti cities, these pavilions would get face lifts before each royal visit, with millions going into new marble color schemes...
...With its wings stretched to their maximum, it looks like a Romulan bird of prey, huge, miraculous, deadly...
...Bishara ends on a note that expresses the fears and the hopes of allies desperate for American leadership: "We want gunboat diplomacy to stay...
...The crew can ripple fire three missiles at once from either one—and it's bombs over Iraq...
...A twin-engine propeller plane with the U.S...
...It is not practical...
...Indeed, half of the UNIKOM observers are based inside Kuwait—watching for those heavy Kuwaiti tank divisions moving north...
...Ever since His Highness has returned," my friend laments, "all he talks about is Iran, Iran, Iran...
...That's the sound of freedom...
...If we get the orders from our national command authority, we are absolutely prepared to use force, and to use it rapidly," Mullen says...
...Kim pilots the EC-3 aerial surveillance aircraft, the carrier's version of AWACs, that provides protection and guides the aircraft on their strike missions over Iraq...
...official told me, getting rid of Saddam is going to take four U.S...
...No one laughs...
...Iraqi military installations took precision hits from these "invisible" aircraft during the Persian Gulf war...
...some offer their wisdom into proffered cassette recorders as the journalists interviewing them look aside in apparent uninterest...
...heavy divisions and 150,000 ground troops...
...But out here, I know that my time home is special, so when I do get home I won't waste a minute on the unimportant things...
...But in the end, any landing where the pilot walks away alive is a good landing," Jack says...
...Security Council resolutions by using banned equipment at a nuclear-related plant some zo kilometers south of Baghdad...
...At the very least, the U.S...
...We haven't encountered any major problems, aside from the usual nuisances...
...The two film teams who are accompanying us groan, but Kofi shrugs off their complaints...
...Because the whole world knows what its men can do when given the go-ahead from its civilian commander in chief 04 The American Spectator • February 1998 87...
...There was only one hitch: we had just given the Syrians a target—us...
...We are something of a 911 Navy," Rutherford says...
...That's how you get killed...
...embassy (still festooned with the Christmas lights the embassy staff hung with defiance during the 1990 Iraqi invasion), with a top foreign policy adviser to the Kuwaiti Emir...
...No one from our unit is putting in for leave...
...Once we cross into the DMZ and the Iraqi border lurches in sight, Gertz and I start snapping pictures from the rear of the bus, as do two British colleagues...
...We are sitting in the lounge of "Frosties," the army PX of U.S...
...We bring a large quantity of Tomahawk cruise missiles as well...
...This means in effect that he is sailing in gigantic circles, sending patrol aircraft over Iraq to keep Saddam from attacking his neighbors, while keeping tabs on the other neighborhood troublemaker, Iran...
...They even ripped out the wiring and stole the door handles," said David Thyme, a British technician who helped design the three-tiered theater that can seat z,000 guests...
...Meanwhile, our allies hunger for U.S...
...You guys are real jokers...
...A significant use of force, if that is what is required...
...That happen often...
...My colleague, Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz, pops the question to our host: "How do you respond to those who say you're just a tripwire, sitting up here near the border...
...Who's the man who will actually push the button...
...At UNIKOM headquarters just a few hundred meters beyond, I strike up a conversation with a second Russian major, pot-bellied, cherubic Ilya Zarouba...
...One senior Kuwaiti leader told me last year that the Kuwaitis fear the U.S...
...The Iraqis weren't impressed...
...That's not part of our mandate," Kofi says...
...Bishara turns out to be an excellent unofficial spokesman for the consensus Gulf Arab view, as I will hear similar themes again and again from Arab delegates to the GCC conference, who want to see the U.S...
...Actually, sir," he grins, "it's more like 250...
...All along the sides of the flight deck, F-4's, F-18's, S-3 anti-submarine warfare planes, and EC-3 Hawkeye electronic countermeasures aircraft have been parked, their wingtips folded to gain space...
...There's nothing worse than going into combat with someone whose veins aren't pumping with adrenaline and fear...
...Thirty-four-year-old Lt...
...But Mullen also makes clear that it is not up to the military to resolve the political crisis...
...He gestures once, twice, three times...
...to track U.S...
...Saddam may fear that one day they will come after him, burrowing into the depths of whatever palace he has hidden in, like a ferret going after a snake...
...Captain Deppe just grins...
...Everybody knew that tomorrow could be the day...
...Above all, don't appear to be or say anything gung-ho...
...military action against Iraq was not even discussed at the summit...
...we ask...
...World Government is better in his eyes than the Clinton policy of conflict avoidance...
...I also ask Bishara about Iran, since he returned earlier this week from the much acclaimed coming out party in Tehran for newly-elected President Khatami, who has called for dialogue with the U.S...
...When we visit the battle command center, weapons chief Edward Fritz takes pains to convince us that nobody is trigger-happy...
...p on the bridge the ship's CO, Captain Lindell "Yank" Rutherford, explains some of the complexities of carrier operations...
...He's a shooter," one sailor told us...
...Is that all...
...I have seen dozens of F-4's before, but never this close...
...It's the only real piece of information he will volunteer all day...
...But clearly it was on everyone's minds: "We just hope that the U.S...
...i unior Officer Jack O'Neill takes Gertz and me up to Vulture's Row on Deck ow, the highest accessible point on the ship, to watch aircraft launch and recovery operations down on , the flight deck...
...It was November i6 when we got the call in the Med," Mullen says...
...Just its presence can stabilize a situation," he says...
...Sad-dam's mouthpiece for the outside world, cigar-chomping Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, mocked Albright at a Baghdad news conference later that day: "If [the Americans] are threatening as they were threatening in the past, we simply tell them we are not scared...
...It's been clearly stated that we are not going to take out Saddam...
...official told me, getting rid of Saddam is going to take four U.S...
...Arafat was being expelled from Lebanon not by the Israelis, but by a joint Syrian and Palestinian assault...
...Finally, the Emir moves toward the waiter, who freezes in fear, and plucks a glass of Pepsi from his tray...
...No, I conclude: his confidence is healthy, the stuff of leadership...
...They are not spreading democracy, only tyranny...
...On the other side of the three-meter berm marking the border lies Iraq: a few Bedouin encampments, tents and sheep, an abandoned jeep...
...A Department of Energy analysis had concluded that without a major infusion of foreign capital and Western technology, Iran would become a net oil importer by the year 2005...
...Pippin is a lot smarter than Roger Auque...
...Our role in the initial wave is to poke out his eye so he's less effective in the following waves of manned aircraft...
...I never learned what happened to the kids...
...heavy divisions and 15o,000 ground troops...
...With a scant 1,200 to 1,400 soldiers under his command in normal times, Col...
...The deal was warmly welcomed by French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, who publicly "congratulated" the French state-owned CFP-Total for pursuing the project in the face of U.S...
...back off its propaganda war with Iran but keep up the military pressure...
...He's rational...
...He is an F-4 weapons operator, the man who tracks "hostiles" and puts weapons on targets...
...So the Captain will get off the first round...
...Nobody wants to fight, but if there is going to be a fight, we want to be in it," he says, bending toward me intensely...
...For nearly two years, the threat of sanctions against foreign companies did indeed serve as a deterrent...
...a Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine, the USS Annapolis...
...Three, sir," Blouch says...
...This is no longer a training operation or a port call, and the crews were very quick to sense that," Rutherford says, explaining their rush deployment to the Gulf in November...
...This is the battlefront where our democratic military—not our Democratic president—will beat them in the end...
...It is not a policy— perhaps only a slogan," he says...
...But almost effortlessly he lifts off the carrier deck, rising abruptly as he gains lift, and banks to make another pass...
...The cruise missile can be a diplomatic weapon, whether it's used or not...
...I can imagine the half dozen points: don't say where you've been flying, what kind of ordnance you carry...
...No fools, the Gulf Arabs politely declined...
...That strike was intended to punish the Iraqis for defying U.N...
...Bryen Williams, an F-18 pilot...
...We've only been with the carrier group one day and one night, but Deppe's reputation has preceded him...
...will have the wisdom to consult us before any action is taken," he says...
...Built in 1985 at a cost of more than $1.5 billion, the Bayan Palace contains three monumental meeting halls and eighteen separate residences for visiting dignitaries, each sumptuously fitted out with marble reception halls, crystal chandeliers, internal elevators, kitchens, servants' quarters, and garages, fit for royal visitors and their entourage...
...And medicine...
...Bishara goes even further tonight...
...That's a lot of bulldozers and concertina wire...
Vol. 31 • February 1998 • No. 2
