This week I traveled well over a thousand miles on military supply roads and around allied front lines, from just inside Kuwait, north of Khafji on the far eastern, coastal edge of the allied lines, to Hafar al-Batin on the far western edge of the line, 20 miles across the desert to the west. I formed two conclusions: first, I would not want to be under the allied assault when it comes; second, that assault is at least a week away.
When I first went out last week, the rains up on the Kuwait border were still soaking the roads, leaving vast pools of water across what in some cases were little more than tracks in the sand. I saw trucks that had crashed head-on, others mired up to the axles in mud, even a 65-ton M-1A1 Abrams tank capsized onto its turret after the transporter slipped off a softened road shoulder. The tank had the name “Whispering Death” painted on its barrel. Still, when you move tens of thousands of vehicles you have accidents even in perfect weather. The number of wrecked vehicles I saw was no more than I would expect on L.A. freeways.
Meanwhile the movement of men and materiel went on. If ever there was proof that the allies have total air superiority this was it. “Isn’t that a great target?” Sgt. Harry Tenney of an Abrams-tank platoon asked, gesturing at vehicles crammed nose to tail to the horizon. It was true. I shudder to think what a couple of Iraqi planes could have done to that column on a strafing and bombing run. But, said Tenney, “fortunately, Saddam has been de-aired.”
Logistics is what the U.S. military does best. But this operation also tells me something else, and that is that the Americans and their allies still don’t have everything in place to start a major land war. All week I saw combat elements of half a dozen divisions on the road, as well as essentials like bridging equipment being moved forward. To get these various bits and pieces in place is going to take a couple of weeks.
The Kuwaiti special-forces team sat like actors on a set waiting for filming to begin. The leader was an affable U.S.-trained colonel; he gave his first name as Yacoub, and I found him sitting beside a small bird cage containing two canaries he’d named Sergeant and Corporal. They were, said the colonel, his early-warning system against gas attack. If either one falls off his perch, he joked, “I’ll know it’s time to put on my mask.”
This is not to say that nothing is happening along the borders. Already there is skirmishing going on, and I would expect to see an increasing number of cross-border raids and artillery exchanges. And, of course, the air war goes on unrelentingly. Early in the week I crossed into Kuwait north of the border city of Khafji with a man from a Kuwaiti special-forces unit. I hear the prolonged thunder of B-52 strikes going in about 25 miles to the north. Much closer was the rumble of repeated tactical airstrikes and the freight-train roar of 16-inch shells from an American battleship over the horizon. In this environment, the widespread stories of Iraqi defections and surrenders don’t surprise me. The Iraqis are taking it on the chin and giving nothing in return. It is one thing to fight under enemy fire, knowing you have some sort of way to defend yourself. It is quite another just to hunker down and have death rain on you.
Overall, what I saw this week contradicts the stories of gloom and doom I have started to see. The Iraqis in Kuwait are cut off and helpless–I don’t count firing a few dozen Scuds as fighting back. I don’t often agree with the military establishment, but Defense Secretary Dick Cheney was right when he joked he had seen a headline “The War Drags On’ after only one week of fighting. As engineer Sgt. Larry Harris from Oshkosh, Wis., told me, “If we’re not ready now, when will we be?”
We certainly will be ready in a week or two. But I am still hopeful that we will not need to use this vast ground force. I remain convinced that the air attack is blasting the Iraqis into the sand. I hope that the American public–and by that I mean everyone from the man in the street to the man in the White House–is gong to have the patience to let the Navy and Air Force continue their pounding before committing ground forces. A month is a short time against a dug-in enemy, and we have time on our side, as long as everyone’s nerve holds. We are not looking at a long war here, but you don’t knock over a million-man army in days. The less we rush, the fewer our casualties. In Vietnam, I never could see the light at the end of Gen. William Westmoreland’s tunnel. Here, I can.
