It's been my understanding that we didn't have much of a choice in keeping the Saddamite government or it's military operational, intact, or even visible.
It had all largely melted away before we got there.
As another commenter has already pointed out Saddam was The Government, and with Saddam and his sons hiding in a spiderholes, followed by having his neck stretched and his sons turned into ground hamburger, who else had the authority to surrender?
Keegan, Cordesman, et al...
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A CA co-worker and I were having that same discussion, today. By the time we arrived at Balad, the Iraqi Army had completely melted away.Originally Posted by Render
"The Plan", for what it was worth, was for the Iraqi Division Commanders to do certain things to signal that their divisions were not going to fight, and then once the big bullets quit flying about, for those Division Commanders to take over responsibility for their respective areas, I believe.
If memory serves, I believe those same Division Commanders bugged out first, once the shooting started.
120, true, but had they been offered amnesty, how many might have stepped up? Once the Baath party was "outlawed", there was no hope of getting either the IA or IP back into the game since the leadership of both was Baath in order to achieve there positions. Good point that it may not have been as timely as some people may assume.
Reed
Last edited by davidbfpo; 09-03-2008 at 07:36 AM. Reason: spelling
Every third world dictator knows that the first thing you do when you take power is give the Army a raise. (Iraqi soldiers would've returned to base to get their pay checks.) After everything else failed, we ended up doing it anyway and calling them SOI.
And yes, backing people into a corner makes a fight inevitable. Assuming his story is true, letting Karadzic slip out the back door and worrying about him later worked out OK.
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