Posted on 03/27/2003 6:12:13 AM PST by handy
Edited on 04/22/2004 12:35:52 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Iraqi paramilitary forces are seizing children and threatening Iraqi men with execution if they don't fight for the regime, U.S. and British officials said Thursday.
The U.S. commanders around the south-central city of Najaf reported the development to Gen. Tommy Franks, who is commanding forces in the Gulf, said U.S. Central Command spokesman Jim Wilkinson.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
The new, improved "Petite" Republican Guard.
I really want some people to see what they are defending.
Just plain evil. Glad we are stamping it out.
Tia
Once again exposed as the hypocrite that he is. I hope they do move the UN to Paris & let the french pay for 1/2 of the cost.
Iraqi regime after a week of war: 'We're still here'
HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer Thursday, March 27, 2003
(03-27) 13:00 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
Standing beside 20 trucks loaded with 700 tons of flour, Iraq's trade minister said they were headed to Basra -- not to hold off starvation, but to make the traditional sweet pastry baklava.
"Your excellency," asked one reporter, "do the inhabitants of Basra really need to eat cakes and baklava in the middle of a war?" "Yes. The people of Basra need everything," the minister, Mohammed Mehdi Saleh, said Thursday with a grin. The convoy, he added, was a "a gesture of solidarity to show that we are still here."
Saddam Hussein's regime, emboldened by what it sees as battlefield successes in a war many thought it would lose in a matter of days, is sounding increasingly confident of victory over U.S. and British forces. It's virtually impossible to tell whether the bravado shown by the Iraqi regime and media is designed to intimidate the allies, give confidence to Iraqis or perhaps even reassure itself that it's doing well against a seemingly invincible enemy.
Senior Iraqi officials, however, don't tire of boasting of how lightly armed Iraqi forces are inflicting heavy damage on allied forces. The fighting, they assert, is being done by a coalition of armed forces, militiamen, tribesman and ordinary Iraqis -- an image that's being projected to underline the notion of a united nation under Saddam's leadership.
Iraq's leaders also ridicule allied forces as cowardly and accuse them of rounding up civilians and parading them in front of TV cameras as POWs. They mock U.S. and British war pronouncements and frequently deride President Bush as a "stupid cowboy" and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as his lackey.
On Thursday, Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashem Ahmed even cited intervention from God in sending a two-day sandstorm that slowed down the U.S.-led coalition. "The sandstorm was a divine gift to tell the aggressor that he is an aggressor," he said.
State television and radio constantly broadcast patriotic songs and footage of Saddam. A favorite piece of archival material, run on the hour on state television, is of Saddam firing a rifle held aloft in one hand, a pose that has emerged as an icon of his regime.
Since war began a week ago, choral groups have been rehearsing and recording new patriotic songs in the open air by the east bank of the Tigris River. Already, there's one song that's being repeatedly played to celebrate Ali Obeid, an elderly man whom the Iraqi government credits for shooting down a U.S. Apache helicopter with his rickety rifle this week. Gen. Tommy Franks has ridiculed the notion that any "farmers" brought down the aircraft.
Another song has the refrain "Afyah," Iraqi dialect for "bravo," and is sung by a man in Arab dress brandishing his Kalashnikov as a woman in black chador next to him performs a taunting dance.
Saleh, the trade minister, said Thursday the allies have failed in a week of fighting to capture a single Iraqi town and boasted that the 312-mile highway to Basra was safe for the food convoy to use. "Iraq will never be defeated and will be victorious," he said. [Dream on, moron]
It remains possible, however, that the stiff resistance so far shown by the Iraqis would crumble if the United States and Britain unleash their full military potential. But, after a week of fighting, not a single Iraqi official is demanding U.N. intervention. Instead, they speak of Iraq setting an example to Arabs and Muslims the world over.
Tariq Aziz, Iraq's foreign policy architect for two decades poured scorn on the United States and Britain when he spoke to reporters this week. Mocking pre-war assertions the U.S.-led war against Iraq would be little more than a picnic, he said American troops would be met in Baghdad the same way they had been met in Umm Qasr and An Nasiriyah, two southern Iraqi towns where allied troops met strong resistance. "We will receive them with the best music they have ever heard and the best flowers that have ever grown in Iraq," he said sarcastically. "We don't have candy; we can only offer them bullets," he added.
Aziz likened the decision by the U.S. military not to capture An Nasiriyah to the folklore tale of a fox that wanted to eat a bunch of grapes on a vine but couldn't reach them. The fox finally gave up, walking away and saying the grapes were sour anyway. [Whatever.]
Iraqi leaders also have refrained from calling for military or material assistance from fellow Arab nations, declaring themselves satisfied with the popular anti-war sentiments on the streets of Arab capitals. Instead, they are displaying a keen sense of history. They've made scathing criticism of Arab nations that offered logistical assistance to allied forces, saving their most stinging words for Kuwait and Qatar. "It's a disgrace," said Saleh, the trade minister. source
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