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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A331-2003Feb12.html

Special Operations Units Already in Iraq
Weapons, Defectors, Communications Links Sought

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 13, 2003; Page A01

U.S. Special Operations troops are already operating in various parts
of Iraq, hunting for weapons sites, establishing a communications
network and seeking potential defectors from Iraqi military units in
what amounts to the initial ground phase of a war, U.S. defense
officials and experts familiar with Pentagon planning said.

The troops, comprising two Special Operations Task Forces with an
undetermined number of personnel, have been in and out of Iraq for
well over a month, said two military officials with direct knowledge
of their activities. They are laying the groundwork for conventional
U.S. forces that could quickly seize large portions of Iraq if
President Bush gives a formal order to go to war, the officials said.

The ground operation points to a Pentagon war plan that is shaping up
to be dramatically different than the one carried out by the United
States and its allies in the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Instead of
beginning with a massive aerial bombardment, the plan envisions a
series of preliminary ground actions to seize Iraqi territory and
effectively encircle Baghdad before a large-scale air campaign hits
the capital, defense officials and analysts said.

"It's possible that ground movements could come in and occupy large
portions of Iraq almost unimpeded," said one person familiar with
Pentagon planning. In northern Iraq, the source said, "we might get to
the outskirts of Tikrit without firing a shot." Tikrit, a city north
of Baghdad, is Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's ancestral home and a
major base of his power.

Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks, the U.S. commander for the Middle East, is
scheduled to go to the White House today for a review of his war plans
with Bush. Franks is expected to depart soon afterward to Qatar, where
his Central Command has established its regional headquarters for an
attack on Iraq.

The buildup of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region continues, even
as the Bush administration pursues last-minute diplomacy to win
support for war at the United Nations. The Pentagon announced the
activation of nearly 40,000 more reservists yesterday, bringing the
total to more than 150,000, the highest number since the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks.

There are more than 135,000 U.S. troops in the vicinity of Iraq, and
that is expected to grow by next week to 150,000 -- the number cited
by military planners as the minimum required to launch a full-scale
assault.

Military officials familiar with the war plan say it is possible that
a fairly substantial ground operation could take place not after the
air campaign, as in the Gulf War, but either before or simultaneously
with it.

The Special Operations forces operating in Iraq have several distinct
missions. Some are establishing relations with opposition groups and
setting up airstrips into which U.S. forces could be flown, the
officials said. Others are focused on preventing Iraq from launching
missiles or drone aircraft against Israel. Those troops are believed
to move in and out of Iraq from neighboring countries.

In addition to the ground operations, a small-scale air war against
Iraq also continues. U.S. and British aircraft patrolling "no-fly"
zones in northern and southern Iraq have conducted airstrikes several
times a week for months, hitting antiaircraft sites, military
communications lines and other government facilities. On Tuesday, U.S.
warplanes dropped more than a dozen bombs on a medium-range missile
launcher system in southern Iraq. Yesterday, they returned to bomb the
radar system for that launcher.

A psychological operations campaign also has been underway, with
leaflets and broadcasts preparing Iraqis for military action, telling
them, among other things, that "coalition forces do not wish to harm
the noble people of Iraq."

"The strategic war has already begun," said retired Marine Lt. Gen.
Paul Van Riper, an expert in war planning.

Early moves of U.S. forces into northern, southern and western Iraq
could substantially reduce the obstacles faced by the large-scale
ground operations that would follow, military planners said. In the
north, Kurdish militias already have achieved considerable autonomy
while the south is overwhelmingly populated by members of the Shiite
sect of Islam who widely resent Hussein's Sunni-dominated leadership.
Western Iraq is largely uninhabited desert.

As a result, military planners said, U.S. ground forces could seize as
much as 75 percent of Iraqi territory in the early phase of a war,
leaving Hussein in control of Baghdad and the area from the capital
north to Tikrit, bounded on the west by the Euphrates River and on the
east by the Tigris -- a region less than 50 miles wide and about 150
miles long.

Assaulting that area still presents a formidable challenge, especially
in Baghdad and other cities. But by radically reducing the combat
zone, the war plan promises to substantially lessen the impact on the
Iraqi population. That in turn would ease humanitarian problems.

For many of the same reasons, people familiar with the Pentagon's war
plan said, the military also will move quickly to secure major oil
fields either before the formal outset of war, or as it begins.

Pentagon officials said the plan under contemplation would not
resemble the Gulf War, where the opening signal was cruise missiles
and bombs hitting downtown Baghdad. Rather, they said, widespread
aerial attacks on the capital may be among the last major moves by the
United States.

In 1991, it was essential to hit targets in and around Baghdad to cut
communications of the national antiaircraft network. But in contrast
to 12 years ago, the antiaircraft system in northern and southern Iraq
has been substantially degraded by years of airstrikes. While Baghdad
remains protected by surface-to-air missiles, many of them withdrawn
into the capital region from the "no-fly" zones, much of the rest of
the country is relatively open to U.S. aircraft.

Military experts cited tactical and strategic reasons for beginning
the war in a way that almost inverts the opening of the Gulf War.

"If Saddam Hussein has the oil fields wired for destruction and is
prepared to blow the dams and dikes of the lower Tigris and Euphrates,
which would slow down our forces, you can't go through a week of
bombing that gives him the chance to do that," said Andrew
Krepinevich, a defense expert at the Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank. Also, the Bush
administration worries that global patience with a war would begin
running out after a few weeks of fighting. Arab governments have sent
the message to the U.S. government that "if you do it, it's got to be
done quickly," said Michael Eisenstadt, an expert on the Iraqi
military at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. So it is
advantageous, he said, for the military to win some strategic
breathing space by achieving some of its war aims before the major air
campaign begins.

? 2003 The Washington Post Company