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 Don Shepperd: Qatar exercise doesn't feel like war...yet
By Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd (Ret.)
DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- The general was enthusiastic; the troops grim-faced, determined. But it was only a "Rock Drill," named for the old sand-table exercises in which rocks were moved around to simulate troop formations. This exercise would be different: Instead of rocks on tables, electrons would fly through cyberspace to provide simulations, and real-time video from airborne drones would flow through secure high-speed, hyper-bandwidth servers to be displayed on giant video screens for combat commanders and intelligence officers. This was an early morning pep talk by Gen. Tommy Franks to his troops, exhorting them to understand the importance of Exercise Internal Look in Qatar. At night, rockets flash overhead. They aren't incoming Scuds or outgoing Patriots but rather fireworks celebrating the end to Ramadan. The streets of Qatar are flooded with people celebrating Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan and fasting. The population of Qatar is 800,000, with more than 600,000 of them "guest workers." It seems all of them are on the streets. The traffic lights and roundabouts cannot handle the volume of traffic along the well-manicured highways. An atmosphere of joy and celebration is evident as Arab music accompanying men dancing on park stands mixes with Glen Campbell country-and-western CDs blaring through the open windows of four-wheel-drive Toyota pickups driven by men in dish-dashas, traditional Qatari robes. Qatar, a Connecticut-size country on the eastern coast of Saudi Arabia, 300 miles south of Kuwait, has assumed big-country importance as the site for Internal Look, the headquarters exercise for U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). The climate-controlled modular buildings and equipment have been shipped in during the past few months and assembled into a modern headquarters from which Franks can command and control his land, sea and air forces throughout the region. The idea is to ensure the same seamless, secure connectivity with all subordinate commands that is possible from the command's headquarters in Tampa, Florida. With possible military action against Iraq on the horizon, this multimillion-dollar investment must pay off. This is the "shakedown cruise" for the CENTCOM deployable headquarters. Pieces have been ground-tested in the United States before being shipped and assembled in Qatar, but glitches will be found. The purpose of Internal Look is to find the glitches and fix them before combat. Franks and his staff will test war plans, stress people and systems, and react to surprises injected by "red forces" playing the role of enemy -- in this case, likely Iraq. Young, intense faces from all services man the computers. Like all warriors they would rather be in the field, in cockpits, on ships, in tanks, but their role in this exercise is to act as headquarters' eyes, ears and coordinators: not exciting, but vital to success in war. The U.S. military, 4,000 strong, is essentially invisible on the streets of Qatar. It is assembled on the As Sayliyah military base, the billion-dollar Al Udeid Air Base and Camp Snoopy. The intense military preparation contrasts sharply with the festive mood in the streets. Despite the intensity of the military exercise, there is no sense of imminent combat. Throughout the region, there are 40,000 to 60,000 troops in place, or on warships. The signs that war is imminent will be the call-up of National Guard and Reserve forces, the alert and movement of active-duty forces from the United States and Europe, and the cancellation of scheduled carrier rotations in the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea. Despite the activity and attention, it doesn't feel like war... at least not yet. Air Force Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd (Ret.) is a military analyst for CNN. Before retiring, Shepperd led the Air National Guard, commanding more than 110,000 personnel, 1,400 aircraft, 88 flying units and 250 support units.
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