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Iraq War Buildup Heightens NewsMax StaffThousands of soldiers from the Third Infantry Division in Georgia have been given marching orders to Kuwait in the largest single ground deployment to the Gulf region since the 1991 Gulf War, the New York Times reports. Adding to the buildup, the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier battle group also received orders to remain at sea ready to deploy to the Persian Gulf on short notice, the hospital ship Comfort has been activated and will depart in just days for the U.S. base at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, and the Air Force has directed several units to prepare for gulf duty – a movement that would about double the 100 combat planes already in the region. The significant movements further signal what officials say is a war window opening in February. All this activity is taking place against a background of accelerated Coalition air attacks on Iraqi radar sites scanning the skies in the no-fly zone. The attacks, the largest in several days, also hit communication facilities. According to the Times report, officials say the reinforcement troops would leave in the coming days from Fort Stewart, Fort Benning and Hunter Army Airfield, both in Georgia. The bulk of the combat division’s heavy equipment, including many of its 4,300 vehicles, is already staged and waiting in Kuwait. The Third Infantry division is just the salient force of three or four additional Army and Marine divisions that could be sent to the region to flesh out a projected 250,000-troop force. Of the candidates to join the Third Infantry, the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky., equipped with Apache attack helicopters and Blackhawk troop transports, is reportedly the most likely to be deployed next. Also figuring in the future troop picture is the 17,000-member First Marine Expeditionary Force, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. According to the Times report, the Air Force units on the move include the First Fighter Wing, an F-15C fighter unit based at Langley Air Force Base, Va.; the Fourth Fighter Wing, an F-15E unit based at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; the 28th Bomb Wing, a B-1B unit at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.; AC-130 gunships from Hurlburt Field, Fla.; E-8C Joint Stars ground surveillance aircraft from Robins Air Force Base, Ga.; and Predator reconnaissance aircraft from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Meanwhile, reports the Times, the stepped-up air strikes and the latest U.S. deployments, appear to have done little to prompt Saddam Hussein’s disposition of his own forces. The bulk of Saddam’s forces continue to dig into defensive holes around the country. Some of the vaunted Iraqi Republican Guard troops deployed around Baghdad have been sent south and west of the Iraqi capital in recent days, leaving behind their heavy equipment.
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