The Iraqi Army never wanted to fight us. They did it a little over a decade before OIF and were defeated and, in fact, most surrendered. Hell, I had 7 armed Iraqi soldiers surrender to me and my driver, and all we were in was an APC (of course it had a .50 caliber machine gun) during Desert Storm. These guys were demoralized. No food, no water, nothing. They were all conscripts. Service in the Iraqi Army was compulsory and unless you were in the Republican Guard life sucked. I felt more sorry for them than anything else. I have pictures of me giving them food, water and cigs. These guys never looked happier than when they got to drink water that they did not have for a couple of days. During OIF, I had the opportunity to speak with several Iraqi soldiers, officers, NCO's and privates, and they all said the same thing. They did not want to fight us. They hated Saddam (except the Ba'athist's) and wanted us to come in and get rid of him. Yes they were very upset when we disbanded them and were elated when we started to stand them up again, but it was almost too late as many of them defected to the insurgent ranks. The biggest problem we have with them now is that they are not true warriors. Most of them are scared. They cower when shot at and once we can get them some courage (Oh great wizard, where art thou?) then they can start to protect their own country. They are coming along though. I read the Army Times faithfully every week and there are reports from Iraq that the Iraqi Army is coming along and are actually leading some battles with us in a supporting role. That is promising.
Bruce G Money wrote: > So our plan relied on the competency, complacency, and cooperation of a > defeated army? Any way you slice it, there was something effed up about our > war planning.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:252612 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
