It appears that a group of Iraqi soldiers have already tried to preemptively surrender to British troops. The Brits sent them back to Iraq – presumably to teach the others how to do the same.
Perhaps France isn’t just selling military hardware to Iraq – they’re sending their tactics over as well?
(Via InstaPundit)
Yes, there will be alot of Iraqi soldiers surrendering just as there were in 1991. And there will be alot of Iraqis dancing in the streets after Hussein is deposed. The media will have all kinds of footage and conservative war-mongers will gloat for weeks about how they were right and they liberated the people.
Their cockiness will be less justified as the occupation drags out and the actions of the other half of Iraqi citizens take center stage after the dances in the streets end.
Who is going to fight?
The Kurds have wanted us to remove Saddam for years.
The Shias will be glad to get rid of him too.
The average Iraqi on the street would also be sick of Saddam’s brutality and the constant shortages of basic necessities. The Americans will bring food, medicine, and badly needed supplies.
The only ones who will fight will be groups like the Fedeyeen Saddam and other hard-core Baathist groups. They are distinct minority in Iraq, and they will be the ones to take the heaviest casualties in the war. The chances of them invoking widescale riots on the behalf of Saddam are about nil.
Even in Afghanistan, a country that is much harder to control than Iraq, the attempts by pro-Taliban groups to attack the US have been easily thwarted by US military power.
Who’s gonna fight? Maybe the same sorts of people who flew jets into the World Trade Center 18 months ago….and there are plenty in the Arab world. And whatever ethnic groups get favored or slightest in the US-led decision to construct a new government can be expected to react accordingly. Are you seriously so naive that you are suggesting once Hussein and his direct hand puppets are ousted from power in Iraq, everyone in Iraq that has a grievance with the US will be out of the way leaving nobody left to fight the occupation? I would have believed that to be too fantastical a premise for a conservative to embrace, but then again, I’ve overestimated conservatives before.
Certainly some will fight against the US. There will not be very many of them, and they’ll be met with the full force of the US military.
The lessons of history are absolutely clear on one thing: negotiating with terrorists never works. Using absolute and overwhelming force against terrorists works. It worked against the Barbary Pirates, the Moros, the Assassins, and al-Qaeda, and to say that Iraq will be any different seems to be an argument with little foundation.
HAHA!!
The Iraqi army sucks!! Since when did Arabs know how to fight a war? Read the history of the war of any of the major three wars between Israel and the Arab states (especially the six day war), and it will tell you everything you need to know about Arabs as soldiers. It would be comical if it was not so sad. Even the undeservedly ridiculed French crushed Arabs soliders and paramillitaries in both in the Battle of Algiers and in the Suez Chrisis.
I say we give the Spaniards a chance. They need to avenge their ass-kicking by the Moroccans in the Riff War of 1920 (in which they were bailed out by France). I actually think the only reason why Aznar has signed up for this war is because he wants Spain to end its two-century long millitary victory shutout.
Yes children.. even Spain can defeat an Arab army!!
When an army is demoralized to begin with, psychological operations combined with massive bombing is extremely effective.
We had the Blue 82s in the last Gulf War. Now we have the larger precision guided MOABs. I wonder how morale will hold up after a few of those are dropped.
I wrote more here…
http://punditree.blogspot.com/2003_03_09_punditree_archive.html#90473040