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Well, that still does not make much sense to me. This time he knew he was going down and lose everything. He had no special assurance he would not be executed by the Iraqi people or in a war crimes trial. He flees Baghdad to Tikrit. OK, that makes sense, because the Baghdadis would be more than eager to kill him, while up north he has not only henchmen, but relatives. But why on Earth, if he still has the WMDs when arriving in Tikrit, does he accept to be separated from them ? To some Freepers, the weapons are now in Syria, because Saddam gave it to the Syrians. OK, let's suppose he's that generous. But then why is Saddam still in Iraq, while the WMDs were his keys to a safe passage into another country ?

You ask very good questions and keep an open mind. I wish more approached this issue as you do. I certainly don't have all the answers. I expected Hussein to gas our troops near Baghdad, for the very reason you gave. In hindsight it appears he really felt his insurgent/terrorist approach, combined with French interference, really would chase us from Iraq and restore him to power. And the speed of the coalition success may have cut Hussein off from his WMDs stash(es). And had he used WMDs, he would have lost all international support and risked his entire country glowing green.

I agree it seems stupid for Syria to take possession of his WMDs, but it also strikes me as quite stupid for Syria to continue facilitating the entry of terrorists into Iraq with our troops just across the line. In short, I dunno.

Maybe I'm trying to put more sense in Saddam's head that there ever was. After some years of absolute power, most dictators usually lose any sense of reality, and so maybe he was really believing the tide would turn and bring him back to power.

Well, in that case he's loonier than the screwy squirrel. I doubt anybody would have welcomed his going back to power when the US Army had toppled him.

Speed of advance was one of the keys to our success. Since the columns were kept on the move there was no real chance to use either CBW or even conventional weaponry with much success.

Those boys were on the move and part of the reason was so they could not be attacked as they could have been if seizing territory and holding it had been the strategy. A brilliant plan right out of Sun-Tse was implemented by Gen. Franks and Rummie.