Sunday, March 4, 2001

By Jon R. Anderson
Stars and Stripes

CAMP LANCER, Kuwait — Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Henry H. Shelton wrapped up a three-day tour through the Middle East on Saturday by conferring with top field commanders charged with enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq and visiting ground troops on Kuwait’s northern frontier.

Ripping open a beefsteak field ration with his teeth as he hunkered down for lunch with the troops in a dusty Bedouin-style tent here in Kuwait’s vast desert just a few miles from the Iraqi border, Shelton told soldiers, "You are the muscle in American’s foreign policy."

It’s the United States’ foreign policy with Iraq that has come under increasing criticism from the Arab world, however. Most Arabs see sanctions against Iraq as doing more to hurt the Iraqi people than hamper Saddam Hussein.

Shelton’s trip comes within days of Secretary of State Colin Powell’s tour through the region, which was designed to both shore up support for the sanctions as well as consider adjustments to them.

The Bush administration is open to the idea of so-called "smart sanctions" that would open up consumer markets, but still restrict military sales into Iraq.

Top U.S. military leaders in the region have also said privately that regardless of whatever tweaking is done to the sanctions, that the no-fly zones in both the north and south of Iraq, as well as military no-drive zone in the southern sector, remain firmly in place.

Whatever changes may or not be coming, Shelton made it clear two key principles remained firm for troops here in Kuwait.

"You are here from two reasons," he said. "First, to keep Saddam Hussein from threatening his neighbors, and second, to keep him from developing weapons of mass destruction."

He also made it clear the soldiers were far from alone in that effort.

Over the past year, he said, the Navy has diverted 82 ships accused of violating sanctions.

In fact, Shelton’s tour began Thursday in Bahrain visiting the Navy’s 5th Fleet, including flying out to the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman where pilots make daily runs into Iraq patrolling the southern no-fly zone.

On Friday, he visited two air bases in Kuwait, where F-15C and A-10 warplanes lend their support to the no-fly zone effort. Sending desert sands swirling, Shelton flew into base camp — which serves as forward headquarters to a battalion-sized contingent of 1st Cavalry Division soldiers — aboard a Navy CH-53 helicopter.

Task Force commander Lt. Col. J.B. Burton briefed Shelton on the training of the some 1,200 soldiers arrayed along the border. The Army rotates special combined battalions of tanks, mechanized infantry, artillery and logistics support every four months to deter Iraq from attempting to retake Kuwait and rehearse war plans should those warnings go unheeded.

"You are here to help make sure Saddam Hussein understands U.S. commitment to defend Kuwait," Shelton told the troops.

From Kuwait, Shelton traveled to Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, which serves as the command hub for no-fly zone missions.

Saudi Arabia has increasingly been distancing itself from those efforts.

U.S. warplanes based there were not allowed to fly in air strikes around Baghdad recently and the Saudi government condemned the raids afterwards.

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