2 Nl Q Asidated press Nel^askan
i t w v Edited by Jennifer O'Cilka Tuesday, January 15,1991
White House remains firm on deadline
WASHINGTON - The White
House said Monday that Iraq will be
living on “borrowed time” after to
day’s deadline for withdrawal from
Kuwait. The administration urged
Saddam Hussein to take “dramatic
action” to avert war.
“Everyone has to assume that
military action could occur at any
point” after Tuesday, White House
press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said.
Pentagon sources said the number
of U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf had
topped400,000, an increaseof30,000
from the total announced last Thurs
day.
There was no sign that Iraq would
pull back. U.N. Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar, who met in
Laghdad with Saddam Hussein, said,
“I don’t see any reason to have real
hope.”
“It’s time to rally behind the forces
in the field,” said Sen. Sam Nunn, D
Ga., who had opposed the congres
sional resolution endorsing the use of
force. He said the time for debate was
over, but warned there could be bad
news from the battlefield if war breaks
out.
As the U.N.-set deadline neared,
Bush summoned congressional lead
ers to the White House.
“If conflict occurs, there will be
full support for the men and women
of our armed forces,” said Senate
Majority Leader George Mitchell, D
Maine, who also had opposed the
congressional resolution. “Conflict is
not inevitable and we hope it does not
occur.”
Fitzwater said, “We all share a
sense of deep concern and somber
anxiety about reaching this 15th dead
line.”
However, he said, “the basic con
sultations and decision-making that
needs to be done preparatory to the
use of force has essentially been done.”
Speaking of Bush, Fitzwater said,
“If the time comes, he is ready. I think
the president has made up his mind.
He is prepared to use force if that is
called for and if that is his final deci
sion.”
Dozens of antiwar protesters
marched in front of the White House.
Police lined the tall, wrought iron
fence and other officers were sta
tioned on the lawn.
“Any moment after the 15 th is
borrowed time,” Fitzwater said.
“We hope for peace at any point,”
he said.
“Every day that passes is a day for
Saddam Hussein tochoose peace over
war Time always exists for him to
take dramatic action that would avert
this situation,” he said. “There’s never
a deadline for peace initiatives.”
Secretary of State James A. Baker
III returned to Washington after a
nine-day journey that included an
unproductive meeting with Iraqi For
eign Minister Tariq Aziz. Baker also
consulted with a dozen leaders of
U.S. allies in the international effort
against Iraq.
Baker expressed hope that “as the
clock ticks down to midnight Jan.
15th that there will be an opportunity
to resolve this crisis peacefully and
politically.
“That opportunity now must come
from Baghdad,” he said.
Yemen offered a plan aimed at
resolving the crisis, and Algeria also
was reported to be readying a peace
mission.
“We encourage peace initiatives
at any point,” Fitzwater said. “We
won’t turn off anybody.”
The spokesman said that Bush was
“involved in making a Final search for
information or any glimmer of hope
that might be there with regard to
Saddam Hussein pulling out of Ku
wait.”
Fitzwater said all Americans should
be out of Iraq by Tuesday.
“We ask the American people to
pray for our country and pray for our
troops over there and we will all wait
and nope for the best,” he said.
—.
Many Americans
remain in Iraq
About 500 American citizens
remain in Iraq and Kuwait, staring
war in the eye as zero hour approaches.
Elizabeth Girard’s daughter is
among them. And her son, an Air
Force fighter pilot, is on alert in Saudi
Arabia. Do not tell Mrs. Girard the
Persian Gulf crisis is only about oil.
“It’s about much more than that.
These are real people,” she said
Monday from Worcester, Mass. “This
is my son and my daughter.”
The State Department estimates
about 300 U.S. passport holders are in
Kuwait and about 180 are in Iraq. The
majority are women and their chil
dren, many of whom carry dual citi
zenship.
Some wives refuse to leave their
husbands behind; some may be held
against their will. Many have chosen
to stay in order to fight for Kuwait,
and for their principles. Others have
no where else to go.
“One woman had just recently
buried her 4-year-old,” said Mary
Kondiat, who escaped to Boyne City,
Mich., with her husband and four
young children. “And somehow she
just couldn’t leave him there alone.”
But if war breaks out, those who
have stayed behind face death in the
crossfire. Civilians in hiding must
rely on homemade basement bomb
shelters and gas masks made of
charcoal wrapped in cotton.
Many others with ties to Kuwait,
including former hostages released
last month after more than 4 1/2 months
in captivity, said they support mili
tary action, even if it puls loved ones
at risk.
“I’m frightened to death but at the
same time I’m proud of her,” said
Mary, a Midwestern woman who asked
that her identity be withheld to pro
tect her sister, brother-in-law and three
teen-age nephews hiding in Kuwait.
Experts: Initial action key to victory
WASHINGTON - Ultimate vic
tory over Saddam Hussein’s troops
in a Persian Gulf war would de
pend on how swiftly, and with what
levels of devastation, U.S.-led forces
can break down Iraqi resistance at
the start, military experts say.
The first days, when massive
U.S. air power would be sent against
Iraq’s missile sites and airfields,
would be crucial, analysts say. A
war dragging on for months would
mean mounting American casual
ties, worldwide economic hardship
and a greater risk of Saddam’s
surviving to fight again.
The optimists say Iraq can be
crushed in days. Sen. banie) Inouye,
D-Hawaii, returned from a gulf
tour to proclaim, “If there is a war,
it will be a short one that will last
no more than five days.” Taking a
less sanguine view was Gen. H.
Norman Schwarzkopf III, the U.S.
field commander in the gulf, who
cautioned that fighting could last
for up to six months.
President Bush, who has stressed
that Kuwait will not become an
other Vietnam, said he hoped “it
would be over in a few days, but
what happens realistically is hard
to tell.”
What is certain is that the war
would start with savage air strikes
against missile sites and airfields
in hopes of preventing counterat
tacks against Saudi Arabia or Is
rael, followed by a blanket bom
bardment of supply and communi
cations lines to isolate Iraq’s troops
in Kuwait.
Kuwait is 500 miles from sup
ply bases in Baghdad, said retired
Adm. Thomas Moorer, former
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff, “and there is no Ho Chi Minh
trail in Iraq, nowhere tor trucks to
hide.”
Without a dependable supply
line such as North Vietnam had
during the Vietnam War, Iraqi forces
in Kuwait, also under heavy air
assault, would “deteriorate rapidly,”
Moorer said.
Retired Army Col. Harry Sum
mers, an analyst with the Army
War College, said this first phase,
which might last a week or two,
would be “very violent and very
costly.”
Iraq’s air defenses are formi
dable, Summers said, and “we’re
going to see American pilots pa
raded down the streets of Baghdad.”
The House Armed Services Com
mittee chairman, Rep. Les Aspin,
D-Wis., quoted military officials
as saying 70 to 80 American and
allied planes would be shot down
in just the initial stage of attacks
against targets inside Iraq.
Aspin predicted that the Ameri
cans, facing a battered and demor
alized foe, would suffer about 1,000
deaths in a short campaign, al
though other experts put the death
toll far higher.
Retired Adm. Gene La Roeque,
director of the Center for Defense
Information and an outspoken foe
of U.S. military action in the gulf,
told Congress there would be 10,000
U.S. deaths in a six-month war
with Iraq.
The morale of Iraqi troops is a
big unknown in estimating how
long war would last Saddam’s army
held together during the 1980-88
war with Iran, which killed up to 1
million people on both sides. This
time, however, the Iraqis would be
short of supplies, facing an enemy
with vastly superior weapons and
defending not their homeland but
Kuwait.
Saddam’s survival might depend
on keeping his troops in the field
while inflicting heavy damage on
the Americans.
He’s gambling that America’s
tolerance for bloodshed and eco
nomic hardship would be low, and
that his standing in the Arab world
would grow the longer he defies
the mighty U.S. military.
100 Km. SAUDI ARABIA KuW^ (_^
. V . .
Sourcas: The New York Times, AP research A P/Martha P. Hamandaz, Pal Lyons
NelJraskan
Editor Eric Planner
472- 1766
Managing Editor Victoria Ayotta
Assoc News Editors Jana Padarsan
Emily Rosenbaum
Editorial Page Editor Bob Nelson
Wire Editor Jennifer O'Cilka
Copy Desk Editor Diana Brayton
Sports Editor Paul Domeler
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor Julia Naughton
Professional Adviser Don Walton
473- 7301
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT
1991 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Soviet president defends actions in Lithuania
VILNIUS, U.S.S.R. (AP) - Presi
dent Mikhail S. Gorbachev Monday
defended the bloody military assault
on Lithuania and said he learned about
it only after a local military com
mander executed it.
Soviet troops seized another key
broadcasting facility in Vilnius. Lithu
anian officials said the action vio
lated an agreement to reduce tensions
in the republic following Sunday’s
attack that killed 14 people and in
jured 230. Troops control eight build
ings in and around the capital.
Gorbachev’ s statement that he was
not in on the decision to use force
called into question how strongly he
controls the Soviet military.
In his first public comments on the
weekend storming of Lithuania’s radio
and TV transmitter, Gorbachev cx
{iressed no sorrow or regret over the
oss of life, except to say it was ‘‘a
tragic development” that the Kremlin
did not want.
He told the Supreme Soviet legis
lature in Moscow that it was “a defen
sive action.”
“The manner of defense was de
cided by the commandant,” Gorbachev
told reporters during a break in the
session.
“He reported to a deputy com
mander of the military district. . .. I
learned only in the morning, the early
morning, when they got me up. When
if happened, no one knew,” Gorbachev
said.
Soviet Interior Minister Boris Pugo,
whose troops participated in Sunday’s
attack, told parliament: “No one from
the center gave an order” to use force.
Gorbachev said Lithuanian “work
ers and intellectuals” complaining of
anti-Soviet broadcasts had tried to
talk to the republic’s parliament, but
were refused and allegedly beaten.
Then, he said, they asked the military
commander in Vilnius to “give us
protection."
Pugo also said the committee had
asked Soviet military officials in
Vilnius to defend its members massed
outside the television tower.
Gorbachev severely criticized
Lithuanian President Vytautas
Landsbergis, telling lawmakers they
had “a very unproductive” telephone
conversation Monday.
“From that conversation, I have
the impression that it will be very
difficult to find ways to conduct dia
logue at a time when the republic is
led by such people,”Gorbachev said.
Landsbergis said the conversation
“was productive enough,” and he
suggested they maintain contact or
even meet.
“Even if their forces killed our
people ... even though people say we
talk with murderers, and they arc
murderers, we will talk,” L?ndsbcr
gis said. Yazov said he issued orders
early Monday that tanks in Vilnius
not use their weapons and that troops
be confined to barracks. The defense
ns and that troops be confined to
barracks. The defense minister said
he wanted tanks removed from the
downtown area.
The military on Sunday declared a
curfew of 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. and put a
commandant in charge of Vilnius. It
forbade the use of photocopying
machines, fax machines and amplifi
ers, banned most public demonstra
tions and authorized the military to
make spot checks.
Pugo described the measures as a
state of emergency.
Officials said the curfew was sus
pended Monday night.