Well, the people telling us the Iraqi people will surrender are the
main Iraqi opposition groups inside and outside Iraq, so it boils
down to whether they can be trusted and whether they're in a position
to know. My own view is that the people and army will not fight, so
long as they can be sure Saddam is powerless, and also so long as
they can be sure the Americans intend to help them rebuild Iraq, and
that it's not just a case of destroy then leave. So maybe the whole
thing will boil down to how good the American communications machine
is, not just the military. The Iraqi army is in pretty bad shape.
They're not treated well, often forced to join up. I've spoken to
several Iraqis who ended up in the army as a form of punishment for
something their families did, or were perceived to have done. So
there seems to be very little if any genuine loyalty to Saddam, which
is why he trusts almost no-one and keeps having to have commanders
killed. I think and hope that individual commanders will decide to
join forces with the Americans, and not keep on propping up this
regime.
But if the German plan comes to anything, it might just be possible
to avoid it all.
Sarah
At 8:49 PM +0000 02/11/2003, colin wrote:
i find this very difficult to believe..., we are going to invade
Iraq and have no loss of life? Bombs that don't kill? The people
will just surrender? the army will? mmmm.. maybe we think these
people have no brains.....
or the people telling us this think we have no brains....
