Posted on 12/22/2002 8:28:13 AM PST by Momaw Nadon
BAGRAM, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The United States' top military commander said on Saturday his forces were ready for action if called upon to fight a war in Iraq.
On a pre-Christmas visit to the troops at Bagram Air Base, headquarters of U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan, General Richard Myers said U.S. political leaders had indicated that a war to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was not inevitable.
"That is clearly a political decision, a presidential decision, not my decision," the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff said, in response to a question from reporters.
"The job of the U.S. military and our coalition partners is to be ready to do what our presidents ask us to do, and my president asks me to do. We will be ready to do that no matter what month it is."
"U.S. forces are ready if called upon -- you bet," Myers said later, when asked if the military was ready right away.
Washington and London have signaled the prospect of war with Iraq was increasingly likely in early 2003, while the U.S. military is forging ahead with a build-up that could see more than 100,000 troops in the Gulf region in January or February.
Myers said U.S. forces were perfectly capable of fighting a two-front war -- in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and he did not see U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, currently about 8,000, declining any time soon.
"The U.S. is absolutely capable of fighting a war on two fronts. There should be no question in anybody's mind about that," he said, but he added that as in Afghanistan, the United States would not be alone in Iraq.
"I would assume if the president were to ask us to do anything in Iraq that would be a coalition effort as well," he said.
U.S. troops are in Afghanistan pursuing remnants of the former Taliban regime and their al Qaeda allies blamed for the September 11 attacks on the United States last year.
Myers arrived in Afghanistan from Qatar and was due to fly to visit U.S. troops in the southern city of Kandahar before heading on to Kuwait.
FYI, The veracity of that statement has been, by the Goldwater-Nichols Act, made more accurate then at any other time in our history. Barry Goldwater saw the way the services fought for turf and influence during Lyndon Johnsons' decisions regarding Vietnam. The Goldwater-Nichols Act places the responsibility for military advice squarely on the shoulder of the Chairman of the JCS.
For those Democrats that think Goldwater a war monger, in rebut, you can thank him for helping to end the draft and to make any US decision to enter war more deliberate.
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