Posted on 03/26/2003 7:46:14 PM PST by Pokey78
"America can't take casualties."
That was the first part of the message over the telephone from an Iraqi officer, eager to hedge his bets in case Saddam lost, to a friend in the coalition-held north.
Saddam's plan is not to defeat the Americans and British in some mother of all battles. That proved a loser last time. Rather, the strategy in Baghdad is to use guerrillas — Baath Party Vietcong — to harass our troops everywhere, in order to demoralize America and achieve a negotiated peace.
He's no fool. Every U.S. casualty or prisoner is fully reported in America's media. Television interviewers eager to match the human interest of gutsy frontline journalists exploit the suffering of relatives. Grief-stricken responses make for riveting television and ratchet up calls to stop the war.
Nor can Americans take Iraqi casualties, according to Saddam's plan. Twelve years ago, Bush 41's fear of appearing cruel stayed our forces from attacking Saddam's routed troops on the televised "highway of death." Even now, our concern about inflicting civilian casualties causes us to pull our punch at military targets, despite Saddam's abuse of women and children as human shields, and use of hospitals and mosques as military supply depots.
That strategy of inviting civilian deaths is also manifest in Saddam's use of "paramilitaries." His widely dispersed terrorists disguise themselves in U.S. uniforms or civilian clothes, and are assigned to kill not just coalition soldiers but also Iraqi civilians in cities like Shiite Basra who want to welcome the liberators.
Such murderous suppression of Iraqis who want the coalition to end Saddam's tyranny brings up the second part of the message inherent in "Americans can't take casualties."
Millions of individual Iraqis still left in Baghdad wonder: Is the coming battle a fight to the finish of the regime or merely the prelude to a negotiation? Should we help the liberators or join the Baath loyalists or just try to hide?
Now we are down to the essence of Saddam's defense. If he can persuade long-intimidated Iraqis that America's humanitarian concern about casualties — its own military losses and Iraqi civilian deaths — will lead to a deal, then it will be easier for him to suppress any uprisings. Who would be so foolish to take up arms against a dictator whose regime — even if it will be Saddamism without Saddam — remains in power again to exact vengeance?
Helping to advance Saddam's purpose of survival — from our view, peace without victory — is the latest Saudi call for negotiation. As the allied army inexorably moves through sandstorms toward Baghdad, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah aids Saddam by echoing the Arab League's demand for withdrawal with his plea that we return to the Security Council for another round of appeasement.
How should we counter Saddam's strategy of using killers in civilian clothes to enforce resistance, and his tactic of horrifying television viewers in the U.S. by inviting and inflicting civilian deaths? How do we overcome the terrorized Iraqi population's fear of an outcome in which Saddam again snatches survival and revival from the jaws of defeat?
The answer is to adopt the proposition set forth by Gen. U. S. Grant in our Civil War, and Roosevelt and Churchill in World War II: declaring irrevocably that the only acceptable end to hostilities is unconditional surrender.
We have not yet done so with imprecise calls for "regime change." Indeed, in hopes of getting Iraqi troops to lay down arms as the war began, we offered "articles of capitulation." Instead, President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, meeting today, should emulate their World War II predecessors. They should pre-empt proposals for bombing halts and armistices with a ringing statement about the only way to end the war: by unconditional surrender.
Change the leaflets and broadcasts. No talks about terms; no amnesties for paramilitary killers; no deals on exile for torturers. Surrender, plain and simple.
Pledge that Saddam's terrorists — now blocking the distribution of food and medicine — will suffer for such atrocities. Assure Iraqis that Saddam's Baathist murderers of Iraqi civilians will face certain retribution.
Guarantee that those who rise against Saddam will not only be protected from his thugs now, but also honored later by the liberating force and by the free Iraqi officials certain to take over.
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