>From MS SLATE's on-line summary of major US newspapers: >While the NY [TIMES] reported yesterday that the fall of Baghdad was aided by Iraqi turncoats, the LA [TIMES] cites another reason on Page One this morning: the self-destruction of the Iraqi army. Citing former Iraqi commanders and servicemen, the paper says the military became increasingly fractured, thanks, in part, to erratic orders from Saddam and his son, Qusay. During the final weeks of the war, troops were ordered to reposition their tanks every morning, and each order contradicted the one before. Iraqi soldiers lacked maps, radios and even a game plan for how to fight American troops--the latter because Saddam didn't think the U.S. would make it very far in the war. "We were crippled by a lack of imagination," one former Iraqi commander gripes. <
Someone -- Chris Burford? -- likened Saddam to Stalin, who eventually won due to the efforts of General Winter. But like Saddam, there was a period when the Russian army collapsed, partly due to silly and vicious maneuvers from above (killing generals, etc.) Unfortunately for Saddam, his country was much smaller than the USSR, so that the enemy could capture the capital... Of course, the US seems likely to lose the peace. ------------------------ Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
