WASHINGTON – The Pentagon began revving up the U.S. war machine for an invasion of Iraq yesterday as more than 4,000 Marines left San Diego for the Persian Gulf and 11,000 Army soldiers specializing in desert warfare were due to leave for Kuwait.
The deployments were the latest in the rapidly accelerating buildup of U.S. forces around Iraq that began over Christmas, as the Jan. 27 deadline for the U.N. weapons inspectors report looms.
The Pentagon also placed more than 10,000 reservists – including engineers, military police and intelligence and civil affairs specialists – on alert to head overseas between Jan. 10 and late February.
Yesterday, the 1,000-bed hospital ship USS Comfort also churned out of Baltimore for duty in the Persian Gulf.
This week’s troop movements will increase the size of the U.S. force in the Persian Gulf from 65,000 to 90,000.
Additional deployment orders involving as many as 70,000 more troops are expected later this week, and the U.S. expects to have a force of 200,000 in the Persian Gulf by mid-February, officials told The Post.
Experts said the departure of the Marine contingent and last night’s scheduled departure of 11,000 more from the 3rd Infantry Division in Fort Benning, Ga., were a clear sign that war planning has intensified.
The 3rd, which is equipped with tanks and heavy artillery, specializes in desert warfare and many of its soldiers are veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.
News of the buildup came as the chief international nuclear weapons inspector said Iraq appears clean so far.