In a visit to London on April 26, 2002, General Tommy Franks, head of the Pentagon's Central Command, said that the USA are ready to take any action against Saddam Hussein while continuing operation in Afghanistan. He added that he was only waiting for the political decision on what to do, and when. General Franks had already said previously that 200,000 soldiers would be necessary for an attack on Iraq. However, the Pentagon prefers a greater use of air power and less ground forces. This is because the US is afraid of heavy losses. Killing foreigners is OK, killing Americans is a sin.
The British Government, through the defence Secretary, Mr Geoff Hoon, does not deny that atomic weapons could be used by the US/British coalition but he added, "only in case of extreme necessity". The Americans do not feel the necessity to put condition like this.
On May 25, 2002, the British newspapers were saying that Bush is "backing off invading Iraq". The reason is very simple: at least 200,000 soldiers would be needed and the risk that many of them would be killed is very high according to the US militaries. They believe that, contrarily to what happened in Afghanistan, the US will not get any local help, quite the opposite, and fighting street by street in cities like Baghdad would involve huge US casualties. There is always the possibility that Blair will send his soldiers whose loss does not count in the view of the great majority of the Americans. Another reason is that the resources of the US, although they are very big, are widely spread already, and it would take sometimes to regroup them. Of course the White House denied the information, but these days the media is often right.
Finally President Bush, on the advise of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld,
ignored the risks and decided to invade Iraq with less soldiers that required
by the top military leaders.