Posted on 05/18/2003 3:09:50 AM PDT by Finalapproach29er
Baghdad -- The 100 or so former military officers standing in the midday sun didn't look like much of a menace. But the threat was there: Pay up, or else.
As the temperature soared well above 100 degrees, they waited sullenly at the entrance to the former presidential palace compound, where the U.S. occupation government headquarters are located behind coils of razor wire.
"We're not asking for the Americans' money," said Lt. Gen. Muhammed Abdelkadim, a former commander of the Baghdad air defense. "It's our money. It's our pay."
None of the nearly half-million members of Iraq's military, he said, had been paid since March 1.
But Abdelkadim and his colleagues, a dapper group in neat slacks and pressed shirts, are likely to be disappointed. From the sound of recent American statements, they may be unemployed for a long time.
U.S. REFUSES TO PAY SALARIES On Wednesday, U.S. officials said they will not pay past or current salaries of the former army, secret police and presidential guard. The move essentially disbands those forces -- but does not provide any formal means of disarming the ex-combatants.
The risks of such a policy were apparent Thursday as Abdelkadim and his colleagues stood in protest outside the U.S. compound. One of their members had been allowed through the razor wire to deliver a petition. They expected prompt action, he said, in the matter-of-fact tone of someone who doesn't expect to be disobeyed.
Informed of the American announcement that former civilian government workers would soon be paid but military members would not, Abdelkadim spluttered. The men around him exploded.
"The Americans can't cheat us," yelled Lt. Col. Basem Al-Lamy, another former officer of Baghdad's air defense.
"We couldn't do anything against American technology during the war," said Al-Lamy, referring to the U.S. missiles that made mincemeat of Iraqi anti- aircraft defenses. "But now, there's nothing between me and the U.S. soldiers on the street. Their technology won't stop me from killing them."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
That's always bothered me regarding our new, apparent, military morality. Winning wars used to be about crushing and killing opposing armies. When you crush them but do not kill them, then they're alive and still in place to kill YOU again.
It's not that I'm a blood-thirsty sort, and true, perhaps 80% of Sadam's Armed forces and related agencies were good "Joes", just conscripts trying to stay alive, but the policy bespeaks a philosophy of secular humanism, i.e. all men would behave in a good and decent manner just like us given the chance.
This country was not built upon secular humanism, but upon a sane, calculated (and, by the way, Judeo-Christian) expectation than men are basically evil in nature, and that you can't trust 'em any farther than you can throw 'em. That's why we have so many "checks and balances" on our government, i.e. because our founding fathers thoroughly understood the base nature of man.
So, we have a bunch of guys in Iraq still carrying arms and rank engignia's on their collars, making demands upon their conquerors? They clearly have little respect for us. The believe we can be easily intimidated! This is dangerous.
On the other hand, how did this Iraqi officer manage to stay alive during his "valiant", dedicated defense of his country? Maybe he should be fired for incompetence, and given 100 dinars severence.
FReegards .. SFS
Kill two birds with one stone. Use the money that Saddam had stowed away in bank vaults to pay back wages to the military only when each man turns in his weapon(s).
Did we really win the war? All I've heard is that major military action has ceased.
Has any Iraqi representing the government accepted terms of surrender or capitulation?
Has any military leader speaking for the armed forces of Iraq surrendered and called for laying down of arms?
We have declared victory but the enemy has not accepted defeat. The Iraqi army was not "defeated", it just melted away and is reforming as a guerilla force.
No but they are either dead or in hiding which makes it kind of hard to do either.
Has any military leader speaking for the armed forces of Iraq surrendered and called for laying down of arms?
See above. They are one and the same.
You've made my point. No one from the previous Iraqi government nor military, to best of my knowledge, has announced to the military and the people that the war is over, Iraq has surrendered, lay down your arms and obey the occupying forces and the new Iraqi interim government.
True, they are liberated from a vile dictatorship but a vacuum has been created without any authority to replace it and as a consequence irt isn't the military or a civilian body but CHAOS that rules.
Which is why we have already started to make some order out of this chaos by making moves to get an Iraqi government in place, (hmm wonder if their first official act will be to surrender?)
This is completely new territory, always before the government of a country was not targeted but the country itself. Now the government is the main target, which leaves, as you point out, no one with the authority to surrender the entire country.
However, those who are left have surrendered as much as they have power over, whether it is a division or a city or a region. So while the central government is gone, the local remains and has indeed surrendered.
Under the Rules of War, this man has just declared himself an unlawful combatant.
Have him dissapear to GITMO for several years and make an example out of him.
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