Ready to Keep U.S. Troops in Gulf for Years--Cheney

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney said today that the United States is prepared to keep troops in Saudi Arabia for years if necessary. “We’re there as long as the Saudis want us . . . as long as it takes to get the job done. And no one should underestimate our staying power,” Cheney said in London.

“Time is much more likely to be on our side than it is on his side,” Cheney said, referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Iraq today vowed to crush any aggression by the United States and its allies. The sharply worded statement was apparently intended to counter suggestions that Hussein was becoming flexible about withdrawing from Kuwait.

Iraq’s statement in Al Thawra, the newspaper of the ruling Baath Party, said Iraqis “are prepared to meet the American troops.”

“If they start the war, we will make it a catastrophe for those who ignite it,” the newspaper said in an editorial. “The destruction will be total.”

The statement apparently referred to Saudi Arabia and other countries taking part in the U.S.-led multinational force that assembled in the Persian Gulf region after Iraq’s Aug. 2 invasion of Kuwait.

Cheney was to meet with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and British Defense Secretary Tom King later today on the first stop of his 10-day visit to Europe. Cheney goes to Moscow on Tuesday and then to Paris.

Cheney said economic sanctions were only just beginning to hurt Iraq and stressed that the United States hopes to avoid war.

Asked if there was the political will in the United States to maintain 250,000 troops in Saudi Arabia “for some years,” Cheney said, “There certainly is.”