THE US military is ready to wage war against Iraq in mid-March. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made the declaration as the US and Britain prepared for one final assault at the UN to win international support through a second resolution. To be tabled early Tuesday, the resolution will not contain an explicit deadline for Iraqi compliance but US and Britain will demand that the UN Security Council vote on the resolution by March 14 at the very latest, effectively establishing that as a deadline. Mr Rumsfeld said yesterday the 222,000 American, British and Australian troops massed in the Gulf were "ample". "We are at a point where, if the President makes that decision [to attack], the Department of Defence is prepared and has the capabilities and the strategy to do that," he said.
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