The United States is prepared to pay a "very high price" in casualties to depose President Saddam Hussein, a senior US military official said last night.
"We're prepared to pay a very high price because we are not going to do anything other than ensure that this regime goes away," the official said, adding that US casualties in the 12-day-old war had so far been "fairly" light.
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"If that means there will be a lot of casualties, then there will be a lot of casualties," said the official.
"There will come a time maybe when things are going to be much more shocking," he said. "In World War II, there would be nights when we'd lose 1,000 people".
The official said the US hunt for any hidden chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programmes had been subordinated to the battle to oust Saddam and his associates - even though claims over such weapons officially drove Washington to war.
The official, addressing reporters at the Central Command's forward headquarters in Qatar, said the net result of reporting by correspondents with the invasion force was creating a false impression of "constant, ferocious battle".
Such reports, he said, created the impression of a much more difficult campaign than it was. "That's not what's going on out there," he added. "It's military action at places primarily of our time and choosing".
The official claimed there were "an awful lot of ominous signs" that Saddam had prepared his forces to use banned chemical weapons. He listed chemical detection equipment, protection suits, new masks and atropine injectors used to protect against nerve agents, all of it found on the battlefield.
He predicted that Saddam would probably mount a "layered" defense of Baghdad, with his best-trained and best-equipped troops, the Republican Guard, arrayed on the outskirts of the city. An inner cordon would most likely include officials of Saddam's ruling Baath party, militia and Republican Guard infantry, he added.
He said the US had underestimated the fear instilled by Saddam loyalists and the difficulty Iraqis would have in revolting until Saddam was known to be out of the picture.
"We Americans aren't very good at judging what a totalitarian regime looks like, does, acts like," he said. "I just don't think we're very good at it".