On the Ground in Qatar

While President Bush says he hasn't yet decided whether to go to war with Iraq, the U.S. is giving Saddam Hussein every indication that a reckoning is near. In recent weeks, with quiet but gathering urgency, the Pentagon has been moving its forces into the Persian Gulf theater to prepare for battle. More than 50,000 troops are now deployed in the gulf--5,000 of them at bases in Qatar, the roughly Connecticut-size emirate that serves as a headquarters for the military's Central Command and its chief, General Tommy Franks, who would direct any operation against Iraq. Last week 1,000 U.S. and British troops stationed at the top-secret Camp As Sayliyah just 700 miles south of Baghdad took part in a virtual war game called Internal Look. They also received a visit from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who hobnobbed with soldiers and signed an agreement with local officials for the upgrading of Qatari bases used by the Pentagon. Asked by a servicewoman if Iraq will cooperate sufficiently with U.N. weapons inspectors to avert war, Rumsfeld was characteristically cagey: "It would be kind of out of line for me to opine as to what it might turn out to be. Time will tell." For Saddam, it's running out.