Firing pistols and AK-47s while studying Islam and history - Firing pistols and AK-47s while studying Islam and history - "Saddam's Cubs" have swapped soccer clubs for military camps this summer in readiness to defend Iraq, they say, from "our enemies." "We are sharp swords in the hand of President Saddam Hussein to be used to fight our enemies," 14-year-old Mustafa Amir told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Amir is one of 1,800 boys aged between 13 and 16 undergoing three weeks training at "Saddam's Cubs Training Camp" in a southern Baghdad suburb, one of up to 30 such camps scattered across the country.

The Iraqi government established the "Saddam's Cubs" camps throughout the sanctions-strapped country in 1996, five years after the country was driven out of neighboring Kuwait by a U.S.-led coalition in the Gulf War.

REPUBLICANS SAY BUSH CAN JUSTIFY ATTACK ON IRAQ

In Washington leading Republican senators contended on Sunday that President Bush was able to make the case for a preemptive attack on Iraq, with one saying "to wait for the provocation is to invite a very, very large disaster."

Disputing a growing number of calls by lawmakers, including some from within Bush's own Republican Party in recent days, Sens. Richard Lugar and Fred Thompson said Bush already had ample reason to act against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

However, Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Sunday joined manhy others urging against such an attack on Iraq, telling NBC's "Meet the Press" Saddam posed no serious danger to the United States.

PHOTO CAPTION

A youth holds his RPG-7 rocket launcher August 11, 2002 at a summer military-style camp program outside Baghdad. Leading Republican senators contended on Sunday that President George W. Bush was able to make the case for a preemptive attack on Iraq, with one saying "to wait for the provocation is to invite a very, very large disaster." (Faleh Kheiber/Reuter