Posted on 03/26/2003 10:11:28 PM PST by frosty snowman
Saddam executes 60 Iraqi officers
PAUL GALLAGHER
SADDAM Hussein has executed 60 army officers and replaced them with some of his most fanatical supporters to dissuade soldiers from deserting in the face of allied attack, according to an exiled Iraqi general.
Mohammed Nafee, who was a commander in Saddam’s forces in the Iran-Iraq war, claims the purge of the army higher ranks took place at the weekend. He has contacted Iraqi military sources in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, who passed on news of the mass executions.
Mr Nafee said the commanding officers of army units considered most likely to surrender were ordered to be removed from their posts and killed. The officers were colonels and captains in Saddam’s regular army. Some were replaced with members of the Saddam Fedayeen militia, otherwise known as Saddam’s Commandos, or his "brigade of martyrs".
Fedayeen militiamen have been paraded as suicide fighters through Baghdad in recent weeks, dressed entirely in white, the colour of self-sacrifice in Islam.
Led by Saddam’s elder son, Uday, they are among the most feared elements of the dictator’s machinery of government.
Mr Nafee, who fled Iraq five years ago and has settled with his family in Edinburgh, said: "The soldiers in the army are very frightened. I am told that more than 60 army officers were executed to cull deserters.
"The regular army has been told that if they don’t fight, they will be shot. More than 1,000 members of Saddam Fedayeen have been attached to army units to prevent them surrendering. The soldiers can’t do anything until they are sure they will be safe because they remember from 1991, when the uprising against Saddam resulted in the deaths of thousands of Iraqi people. They can’t test the situation because it is too dangerous if they get it wrong."
Mr Nafee said members of the Fedayeen had no option but to fight because they were too closely associated with the Iraqi dictator.
"These people are given great benefits in terms of money and power. They can do what they like in Iraq and get away with it," Mr Nafee added. "They know that when Saddam goes, they have no future in Iraq so they must fight to save his regime."
For anyone that remembers the Rush Limbaugh Ken Starr "Mad Man" skit.
Actually it seems to work pretty well ---I doubt Saddam is much different than Hitler or Stalin and he influenced many until we had to put a stop to it. All the so-called peace protestors seem to be pretty favorably influenced by Saddam. And Hollywood types too.
Nonsense. Hussein is dead. This is inertia. It is another sign of the brutality of the Hussein regime. They don't know how to do anything else, so they are falling back on what they do know what to do.
I saw the Al Jazeera video the other day. It was not the work of a fanatical group that went wild. I'm convinced that the people who did what they did had done it before and knew what they were doing. What happened to the soldiers of the 105 mech is what happens to average Iraqi citizens if they don't cooperate with the whims of the Iraqi government.
-PJ
Sadly, I think the question is more complex than that. How do you, assuming you've gone for the "side of good" (and we won't dig into that), ensure the continuity of your rule for the "side of good"? How do you keep the Bill, or for that matter Hillary, Clintons from taking over?
Perhaps the problem is in the word "rule." A policeman doesn't "rule" his beat, but he can work to maintain civil order in it. If we're careful to make that distinction, we can tell when a President Clinton is crossing the line.
Heaven forbid if these Iraqis actually wanted to defend their country. We can't have that can we? When bombs drop on civilian quarters of Baghdad, it's Saddam killing his own people. When Iraqi soldiers charge coalition tanks with rifles, it's the evil Fadayeens threatening to kill the conscripts. When civilians in Basra gets killed it's the Iraqis shooting mortars at their own people... At this rate, pretty soon, we are going to have Saddam committing genocide of his own people while being invaded by the coalition. All at the same time... Have you noticed the American media always refer to Iraqi soldiers as "forces that are loyal to Saddam" as if they are somehow illegitimate. As for the soldiers fleeing the battle, don't army commanders have right to excute deserters?
You must understand, evil is stupid in predictable ways. Evil men think that immorality of itself generates almost magical power, that all forms of decency are weaknesses. It is a superstition.
What happened to the soldiers of the 105 mech is what happens to average Iraqi citizens if they don't cooperate with the whims of the Iraqi government. -PJ
What happened to the soldiers of the 105 mech is what happens to average Iraqi citizens if they don't cooperate with the whims of the Iraqi government. -PJ
It's the beginning of the end for any organized Iraqi resistance.
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