WASHINGTON: If troop deployment is an indication of approaching war, then Jim Wilkinson should be giving Saddam Hussein reason to worry.

Last week, President Bush dispatched Wilkinson, one of his top spokesmen, to head up communications at the Pentagon's US Central Command in Florida.

His new boss will be General Tommy Franks, the force behind the conflict in Afghanistan and, presumably, the leader in any future invasion of Iraq.

The primary purpose of his deployment, according to various reports, is to better coordinate ...