Cohen: Attack on Iraq would be extensive

Airstrikes would target conventional weapon sites as well as weapons of mass destruction

WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary William Cohen said yesterday that the targets of U.S. airstrikes against Iraq would include not only sites thought to contain Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's suspected nonconventional weapons of mass destruction but also those housing conventional military forces that he could use to threaten his neighbors.

Continuing the drumbeat of Clinton administration warnings about the stalemate with Iraq, Cohen and national security adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger appeared on television interview programs yesterday morning to reiterate U.S. willingness to mount a military assault soon unless Saddam Hussein grants full access to suspected weapons production sites for inspection teams from the United Nations.

"Our national interest is in preventing him from threatening his neighbors once again, trying to take control and dominate that region," Berger said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And as long as he pops up and we stand firm, the international community has the will to knock him back. We will prevent him from being that kind of threat to his region."

In recent days, President Clinton and his senior foreign policy and military advisers have said the objectives of U.S. military action against Iraq would be to significantly diminish and delay Saddam Hussein's capacity to produce chemical and biological weapons, and his ability to threaten his neighbors. Appearing yesterday on ABC's "This Week," Cohen emphasized that the threat posed by the Iraqi leader to the Persian Gulf region extended beyond the issue of nonconventional weapons.

Asked if it would be "a major aim of an air attack on Iraq to degrade his (Saddam Hussein's) conventional forces," Cohen replied, "It is to degrade his ability to threaten his neighbors, either through weapons of mass destruction or through a conventional method."

He did not elaborate on possible targets, but one likely conventional force target would be Iraq's Republican Guard, the most elite and loyal force in the Iraqi military. Such a course of action was urged yesterday by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as part of what he said should be a longer range plan to "destabilize and eventually overthrow" Saddam Hussein.

Interviewed on "Fox News Sunday," McCain said: "One of his main pillars of support is the Republican Guarg ... So that's why it's so important that we not only take out the other facilities that you've heard about, but punish this Republican Guard."

McCain and other senators said Congress would support military action against Iraq, although several urged Clinton to delay ordering air strikes until after lawmakers return to Washington on Feb. 23 so legislators can debate the issue and enact a formal resolution of support. Several lawmakers also said that the administration had not adequately prepared the public for the consequences of military action, including U.S. casualties and civilian casualties on the ground in Iraq.

Clinton is scheduled to deliver a televised address to the nation on the Iraqi situation tomorrow. The following day, Cohen, Berger and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will go to Columbus, Ohio, to explain U.S. policy at Ohio State University.

As U.S. warnings continued, a technical team dispatched by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in Baghdad yesterday to survey so-called "presidential sites" that Saddam Hussein has put off limits to U.N. inspectors. Richard Butler, the U.N.'s chief weapons inspector, said on CNN's "Late Edition" that the survey teams were sent to determine "whether there can be some few places in Iraq - namely about eight palaces - which will be inspected in a special way."

"That doesn't mean an ineffective inspection, but a special way that shows sensitivity to Iraq," Butler said. "And if a solution on that basis is agreeable to the (U.N. Security) Council, maybe we've got a diplomatic solution."

But Cohen dismissed the survey idea as "another indication of the dust that is raised by Saddam Hussein." He said he had seen "no proposal" for a diplomatic solution that would satisfy U.S. demands for "full, unrestricted access" for the U.N. inspectors.

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