The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. On the NewsHour tonight, the countdown to war against Iraq: We have the developments of the day; a look at the battle plan; congressional and parliamentary views in the United States and Britain; the latest on protecting the U.S. Homeland from attacks; and two reports on reactions to Pres. Bush's ultimatum speech, from Iraqi Americans in Detroit and American service personnel in the war zone.

NEWS SUMMARY

JIM LEHRER: The day's news on Iraq, and the move toward war. Saddam Hussein refused to leave. Last night, Pres. Bush gave the Iraqi leader 48 hours to go into exile or face war. Today Iraqi Television showed Saddam in military uniform, presiding over the country's top executive Council. The group rejected the ultimatum, and issued a statement that said: "Iraq doesn't choose its path through foreigners, and doesn't choose its leaders by decree from Washington." In New York, the Iraqi ambassador to the U.N. said the issue was not Saddam, but a U.S. drive for domination.

MOHAMMED ALDOURI: I think it is a mistake for United States, for himself, for Pres. Bush himself. So we will be sorry about that. There will be killings, destruction, both sides, your guys, our guys, and without reason.

JIM LEHRER: In Washington, a White House spokesman would not rule out an attack before the deadline expires, if Saddam remains defiant.

ARI FLEISCHER: Saddam Hussein has led Iraq to many mistakes in the past principally by developing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein, if he doesn't leave the country, will make his final mistake. The president continues to hope he will. On the question of timing, the president's words in his speech was a time of our choosing. That's how the president expressed it. He also talked about 48 hours for Saddam Hussein to leave the country to avoid military conflict.

JIM LEHRER: In the buildup to war, Sec. of State Powell announced a coalition of 30 nations He said they have publicly joined the U.S. in confronting Iraq. He said 15 more have said privately they will help. Most of those on the list are not playing a combat role. But they will let the U.S. base troops on their soil, or send planes through their airspace. France has led the opposition to a war, but today, the French ambassador to the United States said that could change, if Iraq uses chemical or biological weapons. In that case, he said, "We have equipment to fight in these circumstances." Russia warned that a U.S. decision to go to war threatens the worldwide coalition against terrorism. President Putin also spoke by telephone with Pres. Bush. A White House spokesman said they acknowledged they simply disagree on Iraq. British Prime Minister Blair won a key support of vote for military action against Iraq. The House of Commons turned aside a motion opposing war by a vote of 396-217. Blair said rejecting his policy would lead to even worse conflicts in the future. But two junior members of the government resigned today in protest. A senior member, Robin Cook, quit yesterday. The parliament in Spain also debated war. The Spanish prime minister supports the U.S. position, but he faces strong public opposition. In Baghdad, residents intensified their preparations for war. We have a report from John Irvine of Independent Television News.

JOHN IRVINE: In central Baghdad, normality is fading fast. Traders are trying to bomb-proof their premises. Tape for windows is now highly prized. In the last few days, stockpiling has sent prices soaring here, but soon, making purchases will no longer be possible. The Iraqi president is refusing to go, but ordinary people able to leave the capital are doing so-- those with relatives in outlying areas and the money to reach them. Most buses have already gone from Baghdad central depot. We witnessed the chase for one of the last ones. The most significant departure from this city today, of course, was that of the U.N. weapons inspectors. They headed for the airport, where their normally deadpan spokesman had this final message.

HIRO UEKI, U.N. Inspections Team: We have just a wish: All the best of good luck to the people of Iraq.

JOHN IRVINE: And then they were off, for the island of Cyprus-- a short hop, but a million miles away.

JIM LEHRER: Thousands of Iraqi Kurds fled into the hills of northern Iraq. They left their homes, fearing possible attacks from government forces. Roads were choked with traffic heading away from key cities. At a meeting in Turkey, Iraqi Kurds agreed to put their forces under U.S. command. The Kurds have thousands of fighters in northern Iraq. U.S. and British troops in the Persian Gulf region made final preparations for war. In northern Kuwait, troops packed their gear and did last- minute drills. And sailors and airmen on aircraft carriers assembled bombs and checked planes. The Washington Post reported the U.S. Military was urging Iraqi commanders not to fight. In return, they'd be allowed to keep their units intact. The U.S. still wants permission to fly over Turkey, to target northern Iraq. Secretary of State Powell said today if Turkey agrees, it could receive a financial aid package. The U.S. originally offered up to $30 billion to deploy combat troops in Turkey, but the Turkish parliament rejected that plan. A nationwide security plan went into effect across the U.S. Operation Liberty Shield began after the terror alert level was raised to orange, for "high risk." It's meant to guard against attacks at home during a war. As part of the plan, the secretary of homeland security said asylum seekers from Iraq and 33 other nations would be detained, pending background checks.

TOM RIDGE: We just want to make sure that those who are seeking asylum, number one, are who they say they are and, two, are legitimately seeking refuge in our country because of political repression at home not because they choose to cause us harm or bring destruction to our shores.

JIM LEHRER: The plan also heightens security at U.S. borders, nuclear facilities, and chemical plants. The government imposed new flight restrictions over New York City, Washington and the Disney theme parks. And there were plans to resume random inspections of vehicles at airports nationwide. The Federal Reserve left a key interest rate unchanged. It said there's too much uncertainty about Iraq to make a change right now. The federal funds rate will stay at 1.25 percent, the lowest in 41 years. Banks use that rate on overnight loans to each other. And in other news today, on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 52 points, to close at 8194. The NASDAQ rose 8 points, to close at more than 1400. And in Buffalo, New York, today, anti-abortion extremist James Kopp was convicted of killingan obstetrician in 1998. A judge found Kopp shot Dr. Barnett Slepian at his home with a high-powered rifle. The defense argued Kopp meant only to wound the doctor to stop him from performing abortions. Kopp waived his right to a jury trial. He could get 25 years in prison. Now it's on to the Iraq battle plans; home front debates; homeland security; Iraqi Americans; and warfront Americans.

FOCUS - DISARMING STRATEGY

JIM LEHRER: First tonight, a two- part look at war plans, those of the allies and the likely Iraqi response. We begin with a report on allied strategy from Michael Gordon, chief military correspondent for the New York Times. He reports from Kuwait, the command center for the allied ground units.

MICHAEL GORDON: The philosophy behind this campaign is pretty different. In a way, this war is a lot more complicated than the previous one.

LT. GEN. DAVID D. McKIERNAN: Our mission is straightforward. It's to disarm this regime of its weapons of mass destruction and to remove Saddam Hussein as the leader of Iraq. The military of Iraq is not our target, nor are the people of Iraq.

MICHAEL GORDON: This time around how you win is as important as the fact that you win. In a sense the victory where the U.S. laid waste to Iraq, killed thousands and thousands of Iraqis, including soldiers who didn't really want to be there, that would be a pyrrhic victory for the United States.

LT. GEN. DAVID D. McKIERNAN: We think that there are portions of the Iraqi military that have no interest in defending this dictator, and will probably indicate to us as soon as they can that they don't want to be part of this fight.

LT. GEN. WILLIAM SCOTT WALLACE: I guess the thing I would tell you is that Saddam has helped us out. Saddam has been such a knucklehead for so many years that he has alienated so many people in this country that I think at least at the outset that the coalition, if we do this thing, is going to be seen as providing them an opportunity, and that opportunity should make our job considerably easier as we move from south to north, from west to center, et cetera.

LT. GEN. DAVID D. McKIERNAN: At the end of this if we are... conduct a military operation into Iraq, we want to have an Iraq that's a viable country to build on as we remove weapons of mass destruction in this regime.

MICHAEL GORDON: Can you imagine some elements of the current Iraqi military being part of the future army post-Saddam?

LT. GEN. DAVID D. McKIERNAN: I can. I personally could see certainly a utility in the Iraqi military for the future of Iraq. No doubt about it.

LT. GEN. JAMES T. CONWAY: Through our information operations campaign, we're trying to get the word to those Iraqi leaders that we'd like them to be a part of the new Iraq and that they got the choice to either fight and die or live and be a part of their new country.

MAJ. GENERAL DAN LEAF: So the psy-ops, the use of leaflets, the use of propaganda broadcasts that encourage a course of action for Iraqi soldiers that will allow them to capitulate or just stay home or surrender, it has been extraordinary.

LIEUTENANT KURT MOLE: The leaflets that we're printing tonight are basically, they're just telling the Iraqi soldiers that they should go home to their families, that they shouldn't risk the life of themselves or their comrades, and they should go back and watch their children prosper.

MICHAEL GORDEON: What they don't do just yet is fill out the procedures. They don't want to give the forces loyal to Saddam advance notice of what these procedures are. They can pretend surrender and turn around and shoot at American and British forces.

SPOKESMAN: How do you balance the risk between the fact that U.S. and coalition land forces are going to wind up in contact with these units, and would like them just to surrender? We're going to have to make some difficult choices. And sometimes we're simply going to have to attack and destroy equipment and kill Iraqi soldiers.

MICHAEL GORDON: And also, this time around the United States doesn't want to alienate the Iraqi people or create more hardships than are necessary for the simple reason that it's going to end up administering this country and rebuilding it, and it's going to look for their cooperation and goodwill. But the idea is to spare the electrical grid, to not knock down all the bridges in Iraq. So it's a different philosophy -- looking for a way to hit some key centers of power without spreading the hardship universally throughout Iraq.

VICE ADMIRAL TIMOTHY J. KEATING: We have developed these plans, and we will execute those plans very carefully to minimize civilian damage, minimize effect damages to the Iraqi infrastructure so that in the end as the regime leaves and phase four begins, the Iraqis can resume their life in as normal a fashion as we can effect. We have the ability, both before launching and sometimes in flight, to adjust the fusing on the individual piece of ordnance that we are going to expend. We put a delayed fuse setting in the bomb, so that it doesn't go off the split second it hits the target. Instead, it gets inside the target and then explodes once inside the target. You will see pictures of Iraqi air defense headquarters that have a very neat, small round hole in the ceiling taken from above, but the bomb goes off once it's inside. Building's left standing. The equipment inside is destroyed. All affected by the change in fusing.

MICHAEL GORDON: I talked to Gen. Conway, the marine commander, and he said something very revealing. He said his biggest worry was avoiding friendly fire, hitting American forces unintentionally and inadvertently with modern weapons. It was a big problem in the last war, accounted for 25 percent of the casualties.

LT. GEN. JAMES T. CONWAY: We've done studies, and if you look at the percentages of our combat losses in all of our recent conflicts, the graph is going the wrong way. It's going up. All weapons are extremely lethal, and when they leave the barrel or they leave the rail, in all probability they're going to kill somebody -- and so we're ensuring that our officers are making positive I.D., and that they realize that there is that potential out there if they're not very, very assured of the target that they're engaging.

MAJ. GEN. DAN LEAF: And I share that concern, because those are our sons and daughters out there in the land forces, and it's very difficult. It's going to be a complex environment. So how do we mitigate it? Some of it is procedural. We've worked on procedures for years. We continue to refine them.

MICHAEL GORDON: If avoiding friendly fire in a battlefield is such a difficult problem, you can imagine how difficult it's going to be deciding which Iraqi soldiers want to surrender and which aren't quite ready to surrender and which are determined to fight. So carrying out this strategy of defeating the enemy without utterly destroying him, is like the friendly fire issue magnified ten fold. It's doable, but it's going to be complicated.

JIM LEHRER: Margaret Warner has more on the coming war.

MARGARET WARNER: And for more on how the war will unfold we get three perspectives. Retired Col. John Warden was air force deputy director for strategy doctrine and war fighting during the 1991 Gulf War and architect of that war's air campaign. Retired Army Col. W. Patrick Lang was a Special Forces officer, a defense attach in the Middle East and in the last gulf war chief Middle East analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency. And retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner teaches military operations and planning and is a long-time consultant to the Defense Department. Welcome to you all.

Col. Warden, beginning with you, let's start right at the beginning - the air campaign. We're told it's going to be a lot more intense than the Gulf War, designed to inspire "shock and awe" in the Iraqis. What will it look like?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: Well, Margaret, I think that in essence what we're going to see is a very, very intense set of use of precision weapons that will compress the impact on the Iraqis probably by a factor of ten over what happened before -- and properly applied that that means that you will impose a strategic paralysis on Iraq and that will mean that the tactical units, whether they're ground or anything else, are going to be driven into a situation of tactical autonomy where they are dependent on their own resources and that they can be dealt with pretty easily, or preferably that the majority of them simply surrender and decide they don't want anything more to do with this.

MARGARET WARNER: How limiting will it be, the orders that have been given to avoid taking out things like the electrical grid or other major parts of the civilian infrastructure?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: Well, we didn't take very much of the civilian infrastructure out the last time. So we know how to do that. It's not a difficult thing to do. That's not a significant problem.

MARGARET WARNER: And then finally we're also told, in fact, the chief marine commander yesterday said quite publicly, I mean reporters were there, that ground operations would begin three or four days after the air war started, unlike the Gulf War where you had five weeks of bombing first. Why, why this short time frame?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: Well, if we went back to the original Gulf War and looked at the number of sorties and the inaccuracy of the bombs that were just directed against the Iraqi army in Kuwait, and then we substituted today's force structure with today's precision weapons we probably would end up with something that would be a four- or five-day campaign. And we have a much smaller target base this time than the last time. So the answer for it being so much shorter really is the availability of the precision weapons that create an enormous impact on the Iraqis very quickly.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Col. Gardiner, let's go to the ground war. How will that unfold? We actually have a map that you helped us prepare here.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: I think, Margaret, sort of conceptually you can think of the ground war being in three parts. The first part will be the battle for Basra. Basra is sort of the port city in the South. This will probably be taken by U.S. Marines and after the city is taken, and hopefully with little resistance, the Brits will come in, occupy the city, and humanitarian supplies will begin flowing through there; that "s the first part. There will be the battle toward Baghdad, and this has two parts. Part one will be the marines, which will be on the eastern road system. Not many ways you can get to Baghdad. The army will take the system that goes up by the Euphrates River towards Baghdad.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. And then what about in the North, where, of course, as we've been reporting for weeks now U.S. has failed to get permission from the Turks to let the U.S. bring in a heavy mechanized division from Turkey -- how will they... how will that unfold?

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Hard to say exactly. What you can say is this is probably the riskiest part of the plan. This is where we're putting troops in maybe the most danger. There are numbers of options. What we hear is the possibility of airlifting army troops from the 82nd Airborne Division up into airfields.

MARGARET WARNER: That's that swoop we see from Kuwait sort of out to the desert there.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Yes, yes. And the idea there is... there are a couple military objectives that are very important. One of them is Kirkuk and the oil fields around there -- very important to get that early before they're destroyed. Interesting part of the early report we heard which is the agreement to put the Kurds under American forces. So that offers a new possibility.

MARGARET WARNER: Jim just reported.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Yes, a new possibility for this operation. Now, there are some political difficulties but that's... anyway, this is a difficult operation.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. So, Col. Lang, one of the terms we've heard over and over is that this is going to be what's called a rolling start. Help us understand that concept. What does that mean and why is it being done?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Well, what they have in mind here is that, in fact, the ground force that is to be used in the main attack from the South, which Col. Gardiner was talking about, is being brought in two echelons. There's one echelon on the ground now, which is something like half of what it will be. The second echelon is still in ships on its way from Germany and the states.

MARGARET WARNER: So how big is the group now -- about ninety-a hundred thousand -- or bigger?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: You're talking about three U.S. divisions basically in the South at present. That's about in terms of fighters -- that's about 55,000 -- something like that. And there's an equivalent group coming in. There's an army corps headquartered in Kuwait waiting to take command of them when we arrive. You have the fifth corps with the present army force under command will advance into Iraq. These other forces will arrive. This other corps command will take over. They will follow fifth corps into Iraq on a follow-on force -- the marines, meanwhile, doing their own thing in the Tigris River Valley as Col. Gardiner said.

MARGARET WARNER: What are the challenges though of that long march if we go back to the southern map and the southern route that has to go all that -- what is it -- 350 miles all the way from Kuwait into Baghdad -- that's a lot of territory.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: It's 500 kilometers, about 300 miles. I've driven it a couple times. And it's a long way across these desert roads, which run through a lot of towns and small cities which were built -- the roads were built through the cities. So that's why they're that way. I think that presents something of a problem because the force is fairly small, and unless the commander of the Kiernan or one of these people is willing to accept the fact that airplanes are going to protect his line of communication and supply back to Kuwait, he's going to have to drop some forces off along the way. This somewhat reduces the force with which he will arrive in Basra until the follow-on comes on.

MARGARET WARNER: But Col. Gardiner, that's where that capitulation strategy comes in, right? They're hoping... as explained in Michael Gordon's piece they don't have to leave large numbers of personnel guarding Iraqi prisoners all the way.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: That's the difficulty. That's what takes combat strength as you move forward if you have to peel off people to take care of prisoners of war. So the capitulation strategy is you let them take care of themselves.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: I think there's more problem than that, in fact. How can you be absolutely sure that all these Iraqis and civilians in all these towns are going to be friendly; something is going to have to be done about that as well?

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Let me bring Col. Warden back in here. Col. Warden, let's talk about the Iraqi defense. We could spend the whole 15 minutes just on that. Give us the basic... what is the basic Iraqi defense strategy as you understand it?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: Well, what we have heard in the last few days is that Saddam has pulled things back into the Baghdad area, both air defense as well as ground forces, and that strikes me as kind of a stupid thing to do in a modern era because it simply concentrates the targets very nicely to be destroyed from the air. Saddam has an extraordinarily difficult problem. He doesn't really have any good military options. This is a pure desperation thing, and his only prayer is that there is some cosmic event which leads us to decide we really don't want to do this, which seems a little bit unlikely at this point.

MARGARET WARNER: Both the gentlemen sitting here are shaking their heads.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Well, this first appeared in American thinking eight years ago. When Americans play Iraqis in war games, the idea of defending the city always pops up as the way to do it. Make it a casualty event for the Americans. That's the way to defend against the Americans.

MARGARET WARNER: Meaning, in other words, they hope or think that they can pull the United States into urban warfare and inflicts such heavy casualties that we'd give up.

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Iraq is like a lot of places in the third world. The only really important place is the capital - five and a half million people. They know we'll take the capital. They can plan to conduct the defense there. In tribute to the air power people, I must say that it's perfectly clear that once the war starts, the Iraqis are not going to be able to move anything anywhere without having it destroyed. The air force people are going to get them. So they're going to do the best they can which is not good. They're going to take their best available option. They're going to dig in in Baghdad with air defense guns over them, if he can get them to fight and try to hurt us there.

MARGARET WARNER: And so, Colonel Warden, once the battle for Baghdad begins whether on the outskirts or in the city, if you have got U.S. forces all up there, does that eliminate a role for bombing at that point, an ongoing role?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: No, by no means. You know, one of the things that's fascinating when you look back over the last really long period of time, since the advent of air power that the number of civilian casualties have been highest in the places where that the air power played the least role -- where civilians really get hurt is when you get into situations where they get caught between two ground forces. So if we're genuinely serious about reducing Iraqi civilian casualties and damage, then the last thing in the world we want to do is to play some stupid game that Saddam Hussein has put together that tries to lure us into fighting house to house in Baghdad. I just can't believe any of our guys would do that.

MARGARET WARNER: How does the U.S. avoid being drawn in in Baghdad, Col. Gardiner, into urban combat? The specter of Mogadishu always looms large.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Margaret, there is no easy answer to that. When you get in close, when you fight in cities, despite the technology, it's not easy. It's not going to be without casualties.

MARGARET WARNER: And Col. Lang, let me shift to one other question. The Defense Department said publicly today that they think there's a high likelihood or high risk that the Iraqis would use chemical weapons. Do you agree with that? If so, where would you... where would U.S. forces be most likely to encounter those?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: Well, the Iraqis have been moving short range surface-to- surface missile systems into southern Iraq for the last several weeks. The warheads that go with these things are useless for anything except chemical weapons really. So I have to think there's some thought being given to shooting gas at our advancing forces, be it a useless provocative kind of thing for them to do. If they do that they might try it in the Baghdad area as well. But, you know, however dangerous this might be to the individual soldier, it is not going to stop in any way the U.S. advance to Baghdad, and we're going to capture the city.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: But-- and here's the problem-- it's the civilian casualties which is what we want to avoid. That's where the chemicals will cause problems and it will frighten the civilians to be on the road which is what we don't want.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. Quick whip around to all of you -- Col. Warden, beginning with you. How long do you think this conflict will last?

COL. JOHN WARDEN: I would guess that the military... the serious military part of the thing will be over in less than two weeks.

MARGARET WARNER: Col. Lang?

COL. W. PATRICK LANG: If, in fact, a "do not succeed" in making a hedgehog defense of Baghdad, then I think it will be over in two weeks.

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Thirty to forty-five days, because the battle is not just the fight. It's taking care of the civilians, as occupiers we have to take care of the civilians.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. And I'll just ask you one final question. Do you think the American people should be prepared for greater both U.S. and Iraqi casualties than in the Gulf War?

COL. SAMUEL GARDINER: Not U.S. casualties, but Iraqi casualties.

MARGARET WARNER: All right. We have to leave it there. Thank you all three.

JIM LEHRER: Still to come on the NewsHour tonight, legislative debates, homeland security and going to war reactions from Iraqi Americans and American military personnel at the front.

FOCUS - THE HOMEFRONTS

JIM LEHRER: The home front legislative debates in the British House of Commons and the U.S. Conference. Kwame Holman reports.

KWAME HOLMAN: On the eve of almost certain war members of the British House of Commons packed the chamber for a full ten hours of debate on whether Britain should participate. A vote was scheduled for the end of the day.

SPOKESMAN: The prime minister.

KWAME HOLMAN: Prime Minister Tony Blair didn't need the approval of members to commit British troops to the conflict. But opposition to the war-- and there is a great deal of it in Britain-- has come primarily from within his ruling Labor Party, threatening Blair's leadership. Following yesterday's resignation of senior minister Robin Cook, two junior cabinet ministers resigned today in protest of Blair's pro-warstance. However, Clare Short, the international development secretary, said today she would not resign as she had threatened, and was seated near Blair as the prime minister made a final plea to members for support.

TONY BLAIR: The outcome of this issue will now determine more than the fate of the Iraqi regime, more than the future of the Iraqi people, who were so long brutalized by Saddam -- It will determine the way Britain and the world confront the central security threat of the 21st century, the development of the United Nations, the relationship between Europe and the United States, the relations within the European Union and the way that the United States engages with the rest of the world. So it could hardly be more important.

KWAME HOLMAN: Those Labor members opposed to military action insisted the case for war still hadn't been made. John Denham was one of the two ministers who earlier in the day had resigned the cabinet.

JOHN DENHAM: But it is not simply a question of whether we take action. How we take action is also important. The reason is simple: If we act in the wrong way, we will create more of the problems that we aim to tackle. For every cause of insecurity we try to deal with, we will create a new one.

KWAME HOLMAN: But a majority of Labor members do support Blair, as do almost all the conservatives sitting across the chamber. Still, William Hague couldn't help but give Blair some good- natured ribbing about the cabinet resignations.

WILLIAM HAGUE: And on the subject of which-- and I'm sorry to see that our right honorable lady, the secretary for international development, is not here-- on the subject of which, I have never seen a more spectacular failure to resign than we have seen over the last 24 hours. It was whispered in the corridors last week when she said the prime minister was reckless, that he would take his revenge in due course. And I believe that by persuading her to stay in the cabinet, even for this last 24 hours... ( Laughter ) ...he has now taken his revenge.

KWAME HOLMAN: Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the United States Congress, having given Pres. Bush authority to go to war back in October, went about its normal legislative business. But on the floor of the Senate, where next year's budget was a matter at hand, Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin expressed his frustration.

SEN. TOM HARKIN: You know, I find it almost surreal that we are here debating the budget. It's important obviously for what's going to happen to the future of our country, but I note at least the British House of Commons just that at least the British House of Commons just today completed a whole day of debate on Iraq. You'd think that that would be happening here in the United States Senate -- that we'd have at least one day of debate about whether or not our president is doing the right thing.

KWAME HOLMAN: However, North Dakota Democrat Byron Dorgan managed an easy transition from the budget debate to the war.

SEN. BYRON DORGAN: On the eve of military action, should we pass a budget resolution that says, by the way, what we propose at the moment as is the case with Pres. Bush's budget and the budget that came out of the Budget Committee, let's have very large tax cuts. Let's have the huge costs of war and reconstruction and all the consequence of that, and let's attach to that additional tax cuts.

KWAME HOLMAN: Off the floor, the debate turned partisan. Pennsylvania Republican Rick Santorum criticized Democratic leader Tom Daschle for his comments yesterday that the president had failed miserably indiplomatic efforts to avoid war.

SEN. RICK SANTORUM: I think Sen. Daschle clearly articulated the French position. I just don't think that's what most... how most Americans see it. I don't think that's how most members of Congress see it. I don't think that's how most Democrats here in the United States Senate see it.

KWAME HOLMAN: But Daschle stood by his words.

SEN. TOM DASCHLE: A diplomatic success is getting a large coalition of countries. We had nearly 20 countries in 1991. A diplomatic success is having 200,000 international troops present instead of the 225,000 U.S. troops, which are present today. A diplomatic success is getting other countries to pay 90 percent of the costs incurred, all of that happened in 1991. None of that is happening in the year 2003.

KWAME HOLMAN: Just as in the Senate, there was no debate in the House today on Iraq, only words f support for the troops, but late this evening in the British House of Commons, and despite sizable opposition from the ruling Labor Party, members voted overwhelmingly to support Prime Minister Blair's intent of using all means necessary to disarm Iraq.

UPDATE - TAKING PRECAUTIONS

JIM LEHRER: Now, protecting the American homeland, once war begins, and to Gwen Ifill.

GWEN IFILL: The stepped-up security plan is called Operation Liberty Shield. With the national terror alert now at orange, or high, homeland security Sec. Tom Ridge announced new precautions, including adding hundreds of agents and sea marshals at the borders and all ports of entry; temporarily detaining asylum seekers from countries where al-Qaida and al-Qaida sympathizers are known to operate; enhancing security at major railroad facilities, bridges, and airports; increasing security presence at nuclear power plants; and calling in selected foreign nationals-- in particular, those born in Iraq-- to participate in what Ridge called "voluntary interviews." For details on all this expanded security, we turn to Philip Shenon of the New York Times. Phil, welcome.

PHILIP SHENON: Good evening.

GWEN IFILL: Will we notice the difference once all of this goes into effect?

PHILIP SHENON: I think you'll notice the difference as you probably noticed the difference in the past when there have been heightened terrorism alerts. You'll see more police out, more National Guard troops out. You'll see tighter security at airports and railroad stations -- a lot of what we've seen in the past.

GWEN IFILL:: So are there specific threats which have surfaced which led us to believe that this was necessary?

PHILIP SHENON: Apparently unlike the threat alert raising last month which was tied to rather specific intelligence, there doesn't seem to be specific intelligence this go-round to suggest that there is any particular plot under way or any particular threat to some institution of the United States. There has been the assumption for months now that when war came in Iraq, there would be an attempt by al -Qaida and possibly by Iraqi intelligence agencies or their sympathizers to have some sort of strike on the United States. It was only a few weeks ago that bin Laden in an audio tape called for a Jihad, a holy war against the United States, including suicide attacks in the event of a war in Iraq.

GWEN IFILL: So there is an assumption because of the president's speech last night that there could be greater attacks.

PHILIP SHENON: Absolutely.

GWEN IFILL: Or a greater chance of attacks.

PHILIP SHENON: That seems to be it.

GWEN IFILL: Let's talk about some of the specifics of what Sec. Ridge announced today. Specifically what caught my eye was the voluntary interviews of foreign-born nationals from many countries but particularly Iraq.

PHILIP SHENON: Again, this is something we have seen in the past through the Justice Department where they have... they describe them as voluntary interviews, but they do seem in some cases to carry out real interrogations of Arab Americans and Arab immigrants in the United States and people from other countries of note particularly in the Muslim world. You'll see that again now. We're told that the FBI almost immediately after the war begins will seek to interview several thousand, perhaps as many as 12,000 Iraqi immigrants in the United States, most of them the people of particular interest, young men.

GWEN IFILL: Have we begun to hear any civil liberties complaints so far?

PHILIP SHENON: The biggest one was an item that was really a footnote in the announcement last night by the Department of Homeland Security. It was the announcement that they were raising the alert level. They mentioned the fact that beginning today, asylum seekers, people claiming persecution in their home countries, who arrive in this country from Iraq and 33 other countries, will be detained for the duration of the processing of their asylum claim. So that means that at least several hundred and perhaps more than a thousand asylum seekers, people who come to this country claiming persecution in their homelands will be detained for an awful long time while their claims are processed.

GWEN IFILL: Theoretically they will be detained as long as who decides is necessary and what would they be able to do to get out of detention?

PHILIP SHENON: Well, if we're to take the Department of Homeland Security at its word, they'll be detained for the entire period in which their claims are processed. We're told that's a period that can last from several months to a year or more.

GWEN IFILL: Sec. Ridge also talked about tightening controls at the borders. What will that mean? Does that mean you can't drive into Canada with a driver's license anymore?

PHILIP SHENON: Apparently this will be largely what we've seen in the past when there have been heightened terror alerts. There will be many more border agents deployed - apparently we're told several hundred additional border agents during the period of this heightened alert. You'll be... they will be more obvious when you go across the borders to Canada or Mexico. But the claim is that there will be no hindrance to cross-border traffic.

GWEN IFILL: Was the announcement today about greater... keeping a tighter eye on the food supply, was that new?

PHILIP SHENON: The Department and other elements of the federal government say they have no specific threat to the food supply, but obviously it is always something of a concern -- the food supply and the water supply. And through the Agriculture Department and through their contacts with state and local authorities, they've asked that there be tighter surveillance. They say again though that this has happened in the past.

GWEN IFILL: The governors who were notified of this in a conference call last night, several of them said today that they were told there was a near certainty of another attack. Were you able to do any reporting to find out what that was about?

PHILIP SHENON: Well, I think again this is the assumption of analysts, that we have been promised by al-Qaida, by bin Laden specifically, that if there is a war with Iraq, there will be new terrorist attacks. The United States has known long since Sept. 11, that when bin laden and al-Qaida make such a promise, they usually carry it out.

GWEN IFILL: One last thing. The head of the Capitol police here in Washington has said that you can't stay in detention forever in talking about these elevated threat warnings. Here in Washington today, we saw a fellow in a tractor and trailer drive into a pond on the grounds of the Washington Monument, and basically ensnare the city for over 24 hours. How do local first responders look at this new information from the Department of Homeland Security as a way of helping them deal with incidents like this which aren't strictly terrorism, but certainly disruptive?

PHILIP SHENON: They look -- an awful lot of state and local officials look at this with a great deal of frustration. They have been saying for a very long time, many of them since the days after Sept. 11, that they do not have the money or other resources to really step up security for a possible terrorist attack as they need to. The federal government, Pres. Bush has acknowledged that the federal government hasn't done its part to help out state and local government.

GWEN IFILL: Phil Shenon, thank you very much.

PHILIP SHENON: Thank you.

FOCUS - LOOKING HOMEWARD

JIM LEHRER: Finally tonight, two reports on reactions to Pres. Bush's ultimatum speech last night. The first is by Elizabeth Brackett from WTTW-Chicago. She was with a group of Iraqi Americans in Detroit as they watched the speech.

PRES. GEORGE W. BUSH: Events in Iraq have now reached the final days....

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: This Iraqi-owned cafe in Detroit was packed and all eyes were glued to the Arabic al-Jazeera Channel for Pres. Bush's speech last night -- 160,000 Iraqis now live in the Detroit area, the largest Iraqi community in the country. Many of these Iraqi Americans fled after persecution from the regime of Saddam Hussein, and have worked to dismantle that regime ever since. Here, the president's ultimatum brought cheers. (Applause) Activist Emad Dhia was especially pleased.

EMAD DHIA, Iraqi Forum for Democracy: It's a sense of accomplishment and relief, in all honestly. Iraqi- Americans worked very hard for this moment, this moment of the truth when Pres. Bush announced on the TV Saddam and his sons must leave Iraq within 48 hours.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Many here have family and friends still in Iraq, so there was concern about the kind of war the U.S. will wage.

ABUKAR ALHASHY: I would rather the U.S. troops direct their job towards Saddam and his sons and knock them down and get the freedom for the people over there. But I don't want the war to be against the Iraqi people or to destroy bridges or kill people in cities or destroy factories.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Several of the men in the crowd were members of Iraqi resistance groups Dhia has been organizing to return to Iraq. Working with the Pentagon, Dhia is trying to place Iraqi -Americans everywhere from the battlefield to positions in the hoped-for post-Saddam government. Twenty-nine-year-old Nasrat, an Iraqi American immigrant who does not want his last name used, has very personal reasons for wanting to return to Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein from power.

NASRAT, Iraqi Uprising Committee: When I'm 12 years old, I see how's my dad, he's sent to death in front of the family, and we lose everything. I hope... I want to see some new life for my kids, especially.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Nasrat fought in the Iraqi Shia uprising in the South in 1991. The movement collapsed with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, and Nasrat was forced to flee. Now he and other former fighters in the uprising areamong the several thousand Iraqis eager to find a role in the impending war. Some found that role last weekend, when the Defense Department kicked off a recruiting drive for Iraqi-Americans. A job fair was held just outside Detroit.

WOMAN: Is there any particular type of work that you would not want to do?

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The several hundred people who showed up get signed up with the Titan Corporation, a private contractor providing interpreters for the military, sign a personal services contract with or become a term employee of the military, join the reserves or in one of the most popular options, join the Free Iraqi Forces, or FIF.

SPOKESMAN: You'd be in uniform in a free Iraq... a special Free Iraqi Force uniform.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The Pentagon says nearly 1,000 Iraqi-Americans have already been sent to Hungary for a four-week army training course for FIF fighters. Mahdi Altwabaa was eager to join the FIF, which will fight under the supervision of U.S. forces.

MAHDI ALTWABAA: The reason for all these people-- and I've been talking to every single one of them-- most of them they victimized by Saddam Hussein and his bloody regime. Most of these people, me personally, I got two brothers executed back in '87.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Nasrat has been trying to think of a way to tell his family he is leaving, but he hasn't come up with one. He is particularly worried about telling his mother. So you haven't told her yet?

NASRAT: No.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: And you're leaving tomorrow?

NASRAT: And tomorrow, yep. So I'm going to surprise her.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Is she going to like that surprise?

NASRAT: I don't think so. Well, hey this is the future, so we have to work hard for the future.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: This group of Iraqi-Americans we gathered said they really had no choice but to return.

MOHAMMED AHMAD: My dad told me to leave Iraq when I was 14 years old, and I was arrested twice because I said something against the government, and it's really time to get rid of this... it's really hard to see him, that he's still in power

SAMIR SHOUKRI: I think that's the duty of every Iraqi who feels that he's tied to that country, that's his responsibility to... from his position to help in any way that can be possible.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: They hoped that those in the Arab world that now opposed the war would change its mind about the U.S.

IHSAN ILASSADI: Hopefully when they go in and create a role model out of this country, this sentiment will be changed. When they start, when the troops are marching in Baghdad, have received and welcomed them, then I think the whole world will understand why the U.S. did what they did.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: It is post-war Iraq that also concerns successful Iraqi businessman Assad Kalasho. Alasho is Chaldean, a Roman Catholic minority in Iraq, though they are in the majority in the Detroit Iraqi population with more than 120,000. Kalasho says the Chaldean community is not as supportive of the war as Detroit's Iraqi American Muslims. Nevertheless Kalasho says he recruited 50 Iraqi Chaldeans to help U.S. forces in Iraq. In return he hopes to ensure a seat at the table for Chaldeans when a new government is formed.

ASAAD KALASHO: I will be focusing on putting that country together within no more than two years-- build a democratic country.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: Chaldean Iraqi -American Ramsey Jiddou is more concerned about the U.S. Creating democratic institutions in Iraq than ensuring a place for Chaldeans.

RAMSEY JIDDOU, Iraqi Forum for Democracy: Again, if the intentions is good and they say it is just temporary there, they are just there to keep law and order and install... or make elections after six months or a year I wouldn't have big objections there, but if they are going as occupier, I have big objections. We are liberators, not occupiers.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT: The more than 150 Iraqi Americans who signed up to help in the war with Iraq are hoping that they will be asked to help liberate their homeland sooner rather than later.

FOCUS - FACING FORWARD

JIM LEHRER: Our second reaction story is that of American troops at U.S. Central Command headquarters in the Persian Gulf nation of Qatar. Tom Bearden reports.

TOM BEARDEN: Central Command headquarters is a heavily guarded compound on the outskirts of the city of Doha. It's a collection of football field-sized warehouses that are usually filled with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles. All that equipment is gone, moved to the front in Kuwait. The warehouses now serve as living quarters for the 3,000 service personnel assigned to the command. They pitched tents inside the climate-controlled buildings and added still more air conditioning capacity because in the summer temperatures can rise to 130 degrees. There are designated tents for people on day and night shifts because most people are working sixteen to eighteen hours a day. Sleep time is precious. Across the street accommodations are a little better -- steel cubicles that house two individuals affording them a quieter and more private environment. There's even a swimming pool, although using it comes out of a person's sleep time. And there's a massive dining facility serving enormous quantities of food and the fries are still French. It's all a far cry from a tent in the Kuwaiti Desert, and nobody knows that more than these four service members. Air Force Captain Terry Raines Perone, Navy Command Master Chief Donn Kaczmarkek, Marine Sergeant Ray Binney and Army Sergeant Derek Rosa.

CAPT. TERRY RAINES PERONE: We're living the high life here. There are a lot of troops not eating hot meals, they're not sleeping on a bed. They certainly don't have a computer to email their husbands or their wives or their kids at home. We have all those things.

TOM BEARDEN: Anybody feel guilty about that a little bit?

MATER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: Not a bit. No, but we... I mean, there are folks out there living it pretty rough. God bless them. If I had to be out there with them, I'd go in a heartbeat. But I'm enjoying it here.

TOM BEARDEN: Not too bad to have a pool available.

MASTER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: No it's not.

TOM BEARDEN: They all watched Pres. Bush's speech last night which aired at 4:00 A.M. local time.

CAPT. TERRY RAINES PERONE: I think there was a huge sense of relief, especially for those of us who have been here for a while to finally see, okay, we're giving him a deadline. It's for real. So that was just a huge sigh of relief.

MASTER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: What we've been pushing or going on 12 years now, it's time to put his feet to the fire.

TOM BEARDEN: Anybody nervous about this going forward?

MASTER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: Our folks are trained. We're ready. We're the best force this planet has ever known. We're ready to go and will do what the president needs us to do. I don't know if it's nervous or not. There's some anxiety with it.

GUNNERY SGT. RAY BINNEY: It's kind of a relief actually knowing that we're finally having a deadline. Things are going to finally come to a head one way or another.

TOM BEARDEN: In the sense you might get to go home sometime soon.

GUNNERY SGT. RAY BINNEY: Exactly.

TOM BEARDEN: Sergeant Rosa volunteered to be here for a very specific reason.

SGT. DEREK ROSA: I was in Operation Desert Spring in Kuwait during Sept. 11 attacks. I watched as the planes hit and the buildings collapsed. I saw the men and women running around scared, the terror that was gripping them. And I was sitting there with my M-16 straddled by tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in the middle of the desert in the Middle East, and I felt helpless. Ever since I got back from Kuwait I've been trying to get out of here to, not to Qatar but Afghanistan or somewhere else in the Middle East so I can make a difference. That's one of the reasons why I re-enlisted in Kuwait because I feel I haven't done my part yet.

MASTER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: It was an emotional event. They hit us at our house with our own stuff. We're America. You don't do it to us.

TOM BEARDEN: Any concern that this action might cause terrorism at home as some have speculated?

MASTER CHIEF DONN KACZMAREK: Hate to speculate. I mean, the threat is always there. That's one of the reasons we're out here. We can stop the threat or at least minimize it as much as possible.

SGT. DEREK ROSA: Another reason why we're here is for the Iraqi people -- that those protesters exercising their rights to speak in public, we're just trying to extend that to the Iraqi people so they can.

TOM BEARDEN: A lot of countries have made it very clear they don't support the U.S. In doing this. What's your reaction to that? Do you feel in some sense isolated here going against the will of the rest of the world community as some people assert?

CAPT. TERRY RAINES PERONE: I don't feel isolated at all. I know I'm here for the right reason. I'm going to do what the president asks of me.

GUNNERY SGT. RAY BINNEY: There's only really a small percentage of countries that really don't think it's the right thing. I think the majority backs what we think on this one. I think they back us.

TOM BEARDEN: Reporter: In the meantime not surprisingly, they miss their families.

GUNNERY SGT. RAY BINNEY: I've been deployed several times before. The only difference on this one that makes it a little bit difficult is that this time I have a four-year-old son, which I've never had before. When this whole ordeal started and I got activated he was two. Now he's four and a half. Time has been going by. That's the hardest thing for me is my son, not seeing the T-ball game that he just, you know, started, not seeing him learn how to roller skate -- things of that nature. That I'll never ever see. That's a one-time deal.

TOM BEARDEN: These service people say there has been no change in their routine since the president's announcement. And that is by design. They say they deliberately trained the same way they fight so that when the fighting does come, the demands of their jobs are almost routine.

RECAP

JIM LEHRER: Again, the major pre war developments of this day: Saddam Hussein rejected a U.S. ultimatum to leave Iraq within 48 hours. Sec .of State Powell announced 30 nations have publicly joined the U.S. in confronting Iraq. And a nationwide security plan went into effect, after the national terror alert level was raised to orange, for "high risk." A note about future programming plans. When full-scale military action in Iraq actually begins, we will mount special PBS coverage that will extend beyond the NewsHour time. It will likely include broadcasts on the weekend as well. In short, if you hear the war is under way, assume we will be on the air. Meanwhile, we'll seeyou online, and at the very least at our regular time here tomorrow evening. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you, and good night.