Navy sailor Javier Nieves, from Brooklyn, N.Y., pushes a bomb to a fighter plane on the deck of the USS Constellation Wednesday in the Persian Gulf. Thousands more troops are expected to deploy to the region in the next few weeks.
Jan. 1 — Troops with the 3rd Infantry Division on Wednesday began the new year by preparing for deployment to the Persian Gulf region over the next few weeks. Word of the deployment — the largest movement of ground troops to the area in the last year — came as President Bush for the first time offered an economic rationale for possibly going to war with Iraq.
ASKED BY a reporter Tuesday whether the high cost of war with Iraq would cripple the U.S. economy, Bush tersely replied: “An attack from (Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein or a surrogate of Saddam Hussein would cripple our economy.”
“This economy cannot afford to stand an attack,” he added, even as his budget team was predicting war with Iraq would cost at least $50 billion.
Bush has pledged to disarm Saddam, with force if necessary, unless Iraq disarms voluntarily.
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