‘Shock and awe’ blitz planned by US

IN a strategy US Defence Department officials are calling “shock and awe,” forces plan to drop 10 times the bombs in the opening days of the air campaign in Iraq than they did in the first Gulf War.

If President Bush orders the invasion of Iraq, the powerful air strikes with thousands of bombs and missiles would be combined with quick ground assaults a combination aimed at overwhelming President Saddam Hussein's defences, keeping him from mustering catastrophic retaliation and convince his forces they can't win, Pentagon officials said.

They said yesterday that part of that plan is to launch an initial air bombardment using 10 times the number of precision-guided weapons fired in the opening days of 1991 war.

Targets include Saddam's military and political headquarters, air defences, communications facilities and systems he could use to launch chemical and biological weapons the Bush administration says he has.

"If asked to go into conflict in Iraq, what you'd like to do is have it be a short conflict," said Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman general Richard Myers.

While fewer than 10% of the bombs dropped during the last Gulf War were precision guided, over 80% of the ordnance dropped this time would be guided by lasers, satellites or video cameras, Myers said.

He said any war against Saddam Hussein will be "much, much, much different" from the last Gulf conflict. "If asked to go into conflict in Iraq, what you would like to do is have it be a short conflict," General Myers said.

"The best way to do that would be to have such a shock on the system that the Iraqi regime would have to assume early on the end was inevitable."

He gave a stark warning that a US attack would result in Iraqi civilian casualties despite the military's best efforts to prevent them. He said disarming Iraq would define victory, not capturing or killing Saddam.

And he added that American forces would open a second front from the north against Iraq, with or without Turkey's help.

"It will be tougher without Turkey, but nevertheless it'll happen," he said.

Improvements in US aircraft and other advances mean five times as many bombs can be launched today with the same number of aircraft.

Officials have said a goal in selecting targets for the threatened war is to try to limit civilian casualties and do as little damage as possible to civilian infrastructure.

Aside from lessening the impact of the war on Iraqis, that would lower the amount of reconstruction needed and emphasise the point with the Iraqis that the war is not against them, but their leader.