Washington: Confident of victory over Iraq if a war breaks out, a top US General has
said Washington has sufficient military capacity to topple the Saddam Hussein regime
"at the least cost of American lives and national treasure".
"There is no question in my mind that if the President of the United States decides
to take military action, we have sufficient military capacity to do the job that
America's military will be asked to do," General Tommy Franks, Commander-in-Chief of
Central Command, told ABC News in an interview at his forward headquarters in Qatar.
Asked whether he has enough men to "liberate people of Iraq from Saddam Hussein"
without costing American lives, Gen Franks, who will be in charge on American side,
said, "Without costing American lives -- never will one get a guarantee, because wars
have a way of not being able to be well calculated at the beginning in terms of the
loss of life, but the nature of war is the loss of life.
"What we want to be sure (is that) we have in place capacity to be able to do what
the nation asks us to do at the least cost in human life and at the least cost of
national treasure. Now, in that context, my answer is: Yes, we have the
capacity."
He said US continues to see examples of the placement of military command and
control, and military weapons, close to hospitals, schools and mosques and that sort
of thing in Iraq.
Asked whether any such targets are off limits to the US military, he said targets
that provide for civilian casualties without a very clear military reason are targets
-- "I won't say they are off limits. I will say they get my very careful review."
PTI
