[ewing]

Correct, Saddams elite '99' Presidential guard are really the only ones who will fight-that's why I'm guessing he pulled back 65,000 troops in two concentric rings for a siege of Baghdad.

[Destro]

agreed--and will Freepers stop having orgasms whenever they hear of iraqi soldiers giving up before the fight. Those poor souls giving up are gangpressed youths who have no beef with us and are fodder for Saddam's Republican Guards.

If Saddam has any strategic ability he is drawing us into Baghdad and urban warfare, where his tribe will fight not for him but to keep themselves alive from other vengful Iraqis and to secure the oil wealth they now control. They would fight us even if Saddam was not there because of those reasons.

[Mark17]

I'm guessing he pulled back 65,000 troops in two concentric rings for a siege of Baghdad.

But, aren't fortified positions, with no air cover, about the most useless things around? I think if it comes down to that, artillery and air strikes with pulverize them. Maybe it won't come down to that.