"All the Way to Baghdad"
efreedomnews
21 December 2002 
Morale is running high as the U.S. Army launched its biggest live-fire exercise in the Persian Gulf region since the Gulf war, in preparation for possible war with Iraq. The day and night live-fire exercises in the Kuwaiti desert involve thousands of troops and hundreds of armored vehicles from the army's Third Division based at Fort Stewart, Georgia . Troops decorated their vehicles with the flight numbers from 911 and one M1A1 tank crew stenciled ALL THE WAY TO BAGHDAD on the barrel.
(click to enlarge)
Today, the 2nd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division sent hundreds of M1 Abrams tanks, Bradley Fighting Vehicles and over 4000 troops against forward positions built to resemble Iraqi fortifications, trenches and minefields.
Third Division Major General Buford Blount lauded his troopers:
"It really adds focus to our soldiers. They're already one of the best trained divisions in the army, probably in the world.''
Comments from the soldiers:
"I kind of feel sorry for them,'' said 1st Lt. Ryan Kuo of Reno, Nevada. "It is not like 10 years ago. The weapons we have now don't miss."
Reporters were invited to participate in this intricate mechanized show of force - a wake up call for Saddam. US reservists and National Guard have been activated and an additional 50,000 US troops are being sent to the Gulf. Forces from the 1st Armored Division and the 1st Infantry Division, based in Germany, will deploy, in addition to the Southern European Task Force, an airborne brigade based in Italy. The 101st Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, will surely deploy with its Apache helicopter gunships and Black Hawk troop transports giving the US an unparalleled mobility and firepower force. The 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, with 17,500 troops, based at Camp Pendleton, California has been ordered to move as soon as the first of the year. With the current pre-positioned forces, the necessary forces for invasion can be ready in four to six weeks.
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Two 62,000-ton cargo ships, the USNS Watson and the USNS Charlton, entered the Gulf within the past 10 days. Released Pentagon data show that cargo ships have moved 1.6 million square feet of materiel from the United States and the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia to the Persian Gulf since Oct. 1, including 1,290 20-foot containers loaded with ammunition, 18,130 tons of ammunition not in containers, tanker trucks, helicopters, bridge sections and watercraft. "We're flowing forces now," Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday on CNN's "Larry King Live." "Every day that goes by, obviously, our capability to move faster and somewhat better improves." |
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The Air Force will move F-117 stealth fighters from Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico to Al Jaber air base in Kuwait. B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers will fly from the Indian Ocean island Diego Garcia and from bases in Britain. 
The USS Harry S Truman and her battle group arrived in the Mediterranean recently and is operating in the central Med. CV-63 USS Kitty Hawk is permanently deployed to the Pacific and could rapidly reach the Persian Gulf area if needed. The Kitty Hawk was last at a port call in Hong Kong 29 November 2002, and is now in the Gulf. CV-64 USS Constellation left San Diego for the Persian Gulf on 2 November 2002. The Constellation left Hong Kong 27 November 2002. The USS Nimitz is scheduled to leave for the Gulf in January. The US will have four to six carrier battle groups in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean Sea by mid January.
The British are preparing to move forces to the Gulf. The Defense Ministry this week contracted with large merchant ships to carry armored vehicles and supplies. The Daily Telegraph in London quoted defense sources as saying that Royal Marines would be sent to the Gulf in January "amid increasing signs of plans for an amphibious landing in southern Iraq." More reports are surfacing detailing the safety of an amphibious assault to deny Saddam the use of WMD's against stationary massed forces building up at land bases.
With Operation Internal Look at the As-Sayliyah army base in Qatar, US Central Command successfully tested its new mobile command center earlier this month and is able to operate in any of the 25 countries covered in its operational theater. The headquarters of the Army's 5th Corps deployed from Germany to Kuwait in October, around the time that the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force headquarters deployed from Camp Pendleton to Kuwait. The Central Command's Army, Navy, Air force and Marine component commanders are all now deployed in the theater.
As Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said in a recent interview,