The British government yesterday committed a huge military force to a possible war against Iraq in the clearest signal yet that it believes the US is preparing to call time on the UN weapons inspectors’ mission and launch an invasion of the country.
In what he described as ”no ordinary measure”, Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, announced to MPs that a force of 26 000 soldiers, a quarter of the size of the British army, will be deployed in the Gulf in the coming weeks.
The force includes a beefed-up armoured brigade with more than 100 Challenger 2 battle tanks and 150 armoured personnel carriers, and an air assault brigade, including 1 400 paratroopers. It is bigger than Britain’s contribution at the start of the 1991 Gulf war.
The troops will join 4 000 Royal Marines who, with Royal Navy and RAF personnel heading for the Gulf or already there, make a total of 35 000 British armed forces personnel in the region. Most will be based in Kuwait.
Though a decision to deploy ground forces to the Gulf has been long-awaited, the size of the force is much bigger than anticipated and is likely to reflect the Pentagon’s advice that as large a force as possible is needed to give the military a wide range of options for an invasion of Iraq.
It also reflects the determination of British military commanders that if their political masters take the decision to go to war, with all the risks that entails, then Britain’s contribution must be more than a token one.
Hoon repeated the government’s mantra that a decision to take military action was not ”imminent or inevitable”.
He added: ”Whilst we want Saddam Hussein to disarm voluntarily, it is evident that we will not achieve this unless we continue to present him with a clear and credible threat of force.”
Government sources denied that the deployment showed that war had moved a step closer. ”War is no more or less inevitable than it was on Sunday,” a source said. ”Saddam Hussein will decide whether or not there is a war.”
However, he added: ”This is a lot of kit. It is there to do a serious job if needed. You do not send a force of this size and complexity just to send a diplomatic signal. If necessary, they will fight.”
Over the past few weeks the government has defended Blair’s delay in committing British troops to the Gulf by saying that it would send the wrong signal at a time the emphasis was on diplomatic pressure and the UN. The decision to send such a large force suggests the expectation is that the US is poised to move to a combat phase.
As if to drive home the point, the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, the man credited with taking President George Bush down the UN route, yesterday warned the UN security council against shrinking from its responsibilities when it meets next Monday for a key meeting on Iraq. ”We must not shrink from our duties and our responsibilities when the material comes before us next week,” Powell said.
”We cannot fail to take the action that may be necessary because we are afraid of what others might do. We cannot be shocked into impotence because we are afraid of the difficult choices that are ahead of us,” he told a security council meeting on the global war on terrorism.
The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, told the UN meeting in New York: ”The moment of choice for Saddam is close. He must either resolve this crisis peacefully, by the full and active compliance with his security council obligations and full cooperation with inspectors, or face the serious consequences — the use of force — which this council warned would follow when it passed [resolution] 1441.”
The decision to deploy so many troops fuelled the fears of backbenchers on both sides of the Commons that Britain and the US have all but made up their minds to go to war. Glenda Jackson, the former transport minister, said the government’s insistence that Britain was not yet committed to military action ”rings very hollow indeed”.
Alice Mahon, the Labour MP for Halifax, said: ”The government has not made a case for war against Iraq.”
Tam Dalyell, father of the house, wanted to know the military objective of the operation and the government’s attitude towards ”massive bombing which will lead to collateral damage and thousands of innocent deaths”.
Bernard Jenkin, the shadow defence secretary, offered the Tories’ full support for the deployment of British troops, though he raised concerns over whether the troops were ”fully trained and fully equipped”.
British forces announced yesterday
26 000 troops
Equipment will include:
120 Challenger 2 main battle tanks
150 Warrior armoured personnel carriers
32 AS 90 self-propelled guns
18 Light guns
A number of reconnaissance and other vehicles
Headquarters of 1st Armoured Division
Includes The Queen’s Dragoon Guards, 1 General Support Regiment Royal Logistic Corps, 2 Close Support Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, 2nd Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, 1 Battalion, Royal Military Police
7th Armoured Brigade ‘Desert Rats’
Includes Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, 2nd Royal Tank Regiment, Ist Battalion The Black watch, Ist Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 1st Battalion Irish Guards, 1st Battalion The Light Infantry, 3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, 32 Armoured Engineer Regiment
16 Air Assault Brigade
Includes 1st and 3rd Battalions, The Parachute Regiment, 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment, 7 (Para) Regiment Royal Horse Artillery, 23 Engineer Regiment, Household Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Regiment Army Air Corps
The Desert Rats
The 7th Armoured Brigade inherited the nickname Desert Rats from the 7th Armoured Division, whose victory at El Alamein in 1942 under Montgomery’s command marked a key moment in the second world war. As Churchill wrote: ”Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat.”
The division itself was born out of the armoured force formed in the North African desert, its men being taught to live, fight and win battles in the wastes of the Western Desert. The men adopted the emblem of the jerboa rodent and the nickname Desert Rats, and later saw action in Italy, Normandy, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany. – Guardian Unlimited Â