Posted on 03/28/2003 9:04:43 AM PST by Kay Soze
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/battle/la-war-iraqfight28mar28,1,3949765.story?coll=la%2Dhome%2Dheadlines
QUICK KNOCKOUT, OR STREET FIGHT?
Hussein Hopes to Draw U.S. Into Urban Combat
The Iraqi regime has spent years preparing for this showdown and how to play to world opinion. Its strategists have researched U.S. military involvement in Vietnam,
Lebanon and Somalia.
By Sebastian Rotella
Times Staff Writer
March 28, 2003
LONDON -- Saddam Hussein hopes to turn the battle for Baghdad into a Mesopotamian version of Stalingrad.
The Iraqi president is an admirer of Josef Stalin. He has modeled his ruthless rule and cult of personality on the Soviet leader.
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And then, he appears to be counting on the modern weapons of media and world politics for his survival.
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Experts say videotapes of the movie "Black Hawk Down," which recounts the frenzied combat in Mogadishu in 1993, circulated among military men in Baghdad in recent months.
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The failure of the first Bush administration to finish him off in the 1991 Persian Gulf War convinced Hussein that his foes do not have the stomach for an ugly fight.
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Iraqi leaders hope gruesome televised images of civilian and military casualties will cause an uproar that forces the Anglo-American coalition to back down, analysts said.
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Hussein's past behavior and the dogged resistance in cities such as Basra, Umm al Qasr and Nasiriyah reinforce fears that the Iraqi leader is willing to use Baghdad's 5 million inhabitants as human shields.
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"They can substantially delay the advance of any force that tries to enter into the capital city," wrote Amatzia Baram of the University of Haifa in the International Institute for Strategic Studies journal recently. "They will not hesitate to use Baghdad's citizens as live shields and their loyalty to Saddam is, so far, solid. I believe that until it is clear to them that all is lost, they will fight."
Baram says the Special Republican Guard has orders to bombard the two main Shiite Muslim quarters of the capital, Madinat Saddam and Kazimayn where about 2 million people live, in the event of a revolt against the Sunni-dominated regime. The bloodshed could be blamed on the attackers, experts say.
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Calculating the risks, U.S. generals could decide to encircle Baghdad and wait for the regime to crumble. In that scenario, Hussein's strategy would shift to politics and the media. Freedman and others said Hussein would hope for intervention by the United Nations, the Arab League and other foreign players to push President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to avert further violence
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"The U.S Army is so obsessed with force protection that it's not bold enough," he said. "They will have to put people into awkward positions that are part of urban warfare."
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"Saddam is being awfully careful to hold back," said Dennis Gormley, a senior consultant at the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California. "To use them would mean a shift of international opinion to the U.S. side.
On the other hand, we're back at 'the red line' outside of Baghdad. It's the ultimate defining moment."
Saddam is being successful in using our liberal media against our military.
Listen to all the “cakewalk” allegations by the media.
He can win if he gets the US populace to attack the military from the rear.
By US populace I mean the demon-crats and other enemies of the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Listen to all the “cakewalk” allegations by the media.
He can win if he gets the US populace to attack the military from the rear.
By US populace I mean the demon-crats and other enemies of the United States.
Experts say videotapes of the movie "Black Hawk Down," which recounts the frenzied combat in Mogadishu in 1993, circulated among military men in Baghdad in recent months.
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