Pentagon chief: We're ready to attack

The United States' most senior military official, General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, declared yesterday that his troops are ready to attack Iraq the moment they get the green light from President George Bush. "US forces are ready if called upon," he said.

In the same breath, however, he signalled that he would be relying on support from the armed forces of other coalition countries in any offensive.

The US is counting in particular on Tony Blair, who on Friday issued a warning to British troops to be ready to engage Saddam Hussein's forces.

General Myers, who was paying a Christmas visit to US soldiers in Afghanistan, said he had no view on whether conflict with Iraq had become inevitable. "The job of the US 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," he said. "We will be ready to do that no matter what month it is."

But there is every sign that the US military is not ready. General Myers has about 50,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region but plans are now drawn up to double that number in the next month. Those plans have been approved by the White House, but the Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has yet to sign the necessary deployment orders.

Meanwhile, Washington has alerted 30,000 reservist soldiers in the US to prepare to report for duty and tens of thousands more reservists and National Guard soldiers are likely to receive word to activate in several weeks.

A galaxy of hardware, most importantly in the air power arena, is also being readied for deployment to the region. It will include aerial bombers and fighter jets. America already has two aircraft carriers in the area, which are preparing for war.

The movement of weaponry would include the dispatching of B-52 and B-2 bombers to Diego Garcia in the central Indian Ocean; B-1 bombers possibly to Oman, F-15 and other fighter jets to Kuwait, and refueling and other support aircraft to Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Also expected to join are F-117 stealth fighter-bombers.

General Myers is on a tour of US bases in Kuwait, Qatar and also Afghanistan, where about 8,000 US soldiers remain. They are part of the international force responsible for stabilising the country after the ousting of the Taliban and for seeking out remaining hostile and al-Qa'ida elements.

He denied that the US would be over-stretched trying to remain in Afghanistan and fighting Iraq at the same time. "The US is absolutely capable of fighting a war on two fronts," he said. "There should be no question in anybody's mind about that."

General Myers has repeatedly insisted in recent days that the American build-up in the region does not signify that war is now inevitable with Iraq.

Instead, he has argued, it is a tool to maintain the pressure on Saddam Hussein to reveal his weapons of mass destruction and thus avert hostilities.

"One of the reasons is to keep helping the diplomatic angle, to reinforce diplomacy and to ensure the Iraqi regime understands the options it has," he said.

**A French television reporter was hit by a tank yesterday while covering military exercises in the Kuwaiti desert. Patrick Bourrat, who works for TF1, suffered four broken ribs.