U.S. troops tired of waiting in the desert welcome the possibility of a U.N. resolution setting a January deadline for Iraq to pull out of Kuwait. ``The sooner they take immediate action, the sooner this'll get over and we can all go home,'' Air Force Sgt. Bill Hubbard, 21, of Tarpon Springs, Fla., said Tuesday. Some servicemen who arrived in Saudi Arabia soon after President Bush ordered troops to defend it on Aug. 7 said the United Nations should have set a deadline much earlier to prevent Saddam Hussein's forces from destroying Kuwait. ``He's been in Kuwait so long now, he's just raping the country,'' said Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ricky Presley, 32, of Little Rock, Ark., who arrived Aug. 16. ``I think we should never have let him do that in the first place. I think it (a deadline) should have happened a while back,'' he said. Capt. Ali, 34, a Kuwaiti army tank commander waiting to go on maneuvers about 40 miles from the Kuwaiti border, also believes a deadline should have been set ``as soon as they attacked Kuwait.'' ``I don't know why they are waiting ... We were ready to go months ago,'' said Ali, who refused to give his last name to protect his wife, parents and four children still in Kuwait. 1st Lt. Bruce Lake, 29, of Newport News, Va., a tank platoon commander who has spent more than three months in the desert, said he and his troops from the 69th Armored Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division would be delighted with a deadline. ``But I don't think it'll fly ... Just from my reading of the situation and listening to the news ... I haven't sensed that much unity and we still seem to be leading the way,'' he said. ``Either an operation or a go-home date is going to boost morale,'' he said. ``We feel that we have the forces we need over here to do the job and push this guy out if need be, and to go home.'' The U.N. Security Council is expected to meet Thursday to consider a draft resolution setting a Jan. 15 deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, restore its government and release all foreign hostages. Lt. Col. Robert McCann, 42, of West Hope, N.D., said international support is important ``because in today's world no one nation can just do what they want to. That's why we're here.'' Air Force Staff Sgt. Jim White, 39, Fairfield, Calif., said U.N. support of the multinational force is essential to prevent similar aggression elsewhere. ``How many times in the past has the United States been the almost sole bearer of international disputes? Now, I feel if we don't come through on this one, it's going to have a domino effect,'' he said. As they stepped off a C-5 Galaxy transport after a 36-hour flight from Travis Air Force Base in California, some of the newest reinforcements for Operation Desert Shield were equally hopeful. ``We got to bring this thing to a head one way or the other,'' said Capt. Clarence Ryan, 40, of Laurel, Md., who was leading a unit of cooks and firefighters from the 60th Military Air Wing at Travis. ``The long waiting game, will it pay off? We don't know, but the longer we wait, the more Kuwait is being torn up.'' After two months with a combat unit in the desert, Staff Sgt. Douglas Barton, 40, of San Antonio said he got tired of waiting and decided to end his 20-year Army career. ``I'm not going to sit in the desert for no reason. Time for me to go,'' he said as he waited for a flight home.
