[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

[Chummy]

Saddam orders via a pre-disarmament activities videotape the purging of another 5 dozen of his officers. Put in Volumes II, III, IV, etc. of this multi-tape set.

[GOPJ]

You're right. It was done in the fashion of men who had lost conscience many murders before. Good catch.

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

[GOPJ]

You're right. It was done in the fashion of men who had lost conscience many murders before. Good catch.

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

[section9]

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.

The news that sixty officers were shot actually tells me that Saddam is still alive. Combine this with the assault of the "technicals" on Third Squadron, Seventh Cav last night. These are exactly the kind of things that a military amateur would do. Saddam waltzes around in a military uniform and does not leave the war to his professional officers. He cannot because that would give the General Staff corps too much political power. Of such things are coups made.

Saddam is said to have remarked: "My enemies want to kill me, but I kill them first, because I know that they want to kill me before they even know it."

Stalin was the same way, you know. Naturally, he did not suffer fools gladly, or even friends. So many general staff officers were killed in the Red Army purges that it had a baleful influence on the Red Army as an institution. It took the German invasion to have the young leaders in the Red Army step forward. Even then, the NKVD was kept around for a dollop of "courage" now and again.

One thing that needs to be emphasized: the difference between this war and Operation Barbarossa are simple and critical: the Iraqis do not have a widespread native military supply and production system. They aren't turning out T-72's in Takrit. Further, they do not have vast stretches of steppe to fall back on. They don't have a strategic rear. We have jumped into their strategic rear. We are operating in their north and in their west, and I suspect that we are there in greater strength than we are aware of.

Be Seeing You,

Chris

[MizSterious]

You might be right. I don't for a minute believe Hussein is the only "evil one" in that government--I'm sure plenty more were ready and willing to take his place, and most were probably schooled by Hussein or his evil spawn. They'd probably do a lot of things the same way he would have.