[Pan_Yans Wife]

If he keeps getting more frantic, and offing his own men, our job might get much easier in Baghdad, 60, then 100, then 250, then 432...

[the_doc]

You know, I doubt that the average Iraqi grunt thinks this situation is really cool. I think some of the Fedayeen guys may get fragged.

[merrin]

I can't decide if this is bad (because it makes surrender less likely) or good (because the new commanders are likely to be far less competent).

[Liberal Bob]

Fedayeen militiamen

Dead men walking.

[ClancyJ]

Well we sure can't tell which are the good ones and which the Saddam-lovers - so this will just have to be war. The faster we get this job done over there - the better.

[doug from upland]

He is still behind his hero, Stalin ---

The next trial in March, 1938, involved twenty-one leading members of the party. This included Nickolai Bukharin, Alexei Rykov, Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Krestinsky and Christian Rakovsky. They were accused of being involved with Leon Trotsky in a plot against Joseph Stalin and with spying for foreign powers. They were all found guilty and were either executed or died in labour camps.

Stalin now decided to purge the Red Army. Some historians believe that Stalin was telling the truth when he claimed that he had evidence that the army was planning a military coup at this time. Leopold Trepper, head of the Soviet spy ring in Germany, believed that the evidence was planted by a double agent who worked for both Stalin and Hitler. Trepper's theory is that the "chiefs of Nazi counter-espionage" led by Reinhard Heydrich, took "advantage of the paranoia raging in the Soviet Union," by supplying information that led to Stalin executing his top military leaders.

In June, 1937, Mikhail Tukhachevsky and seven other top Red Army commanders were charged with conspiracy with Germany. All eight were convicted and executed. All told, 30,000 members of the armed forces were executed. This included fifty per cent of all army officers.

The last stage of the terror was the purging of the NKVD. Stalin wanted to make sure that those who knew too much about the purges would also be killed. Stalin announced to the country that "fascist elements" had taken over the security forces which had resulted in innocent people being executed. He appointed Lavrenti Beria as the new head of the Secret Police and he was instructed to find out who was responsible. After his investigations, Beria arranged the executions of all the senior figures in the organization.

[Lib-Lickers 2]

thought Saddam bit the dust on opening day??,,,,,,,,

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I think this is good news for us!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[Deepest South]

Are the militia thugs trained military officers or just bloodthirty gangsters? Seems saddam would have been better off with experienced, trained officers in charge of troops rather than thugs. Fanatical leaders make major mistakes. So when the thugs start shooting those under them as their hero has done to his officers just who will be left to take on that Abrams with nothing but a white suit and a crazed look?

[Bobby777]

has this story been corroborated? ... I'm just wondering how this type of information gets out ... Saddam has been known to execute military officers suspected of plotting to overthrow his regime ... hmmmm ...

[ChadGore]

How very Salinesque of saddom.

[Professional]

Saddam, why are you so mad, man? Saddam, you're a madman! You're a mad, mad, man. Man, you're a mad man! - James Carville

For anyone that remembers the Rush Limbaugh Ken Starr "Mad Man" skit.

[AmericanVictory]

Time to really put the pressure on. The more professional military officers are replaced by SS types, the more mistakes will be made.

[diamond6]

So Satan.... I mean Sadam is alive??

[Political Junkie Too]

SADDAM Hussein has executed 60 army officers... the purge of the army higher ranks took place at the weekend.

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

[Mystix]

He's reaching now...

[ambrose]

This comes from the Democratic Underground:

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?

[AmericaUnited]

The regulars should just frag these guys.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Iraq has the only military in the world where men don't want to be promoted to General. I can just picture a group of Iraqi Colonels at the meeting. "You're the new General! No, you are. Please, I insist that you take it" as they pass the rank epaulets around like a hot potato. Then the loser looks at the new rank and wonders if Saddam has any without bullet holes.

[thescourged1]

One thing's for certain.....

It's the beginning of the end for any organized Iraqi resistance.