Yarmuk, Qadisiya, An Nasiriyah

vanity | Tokhtamish

[Tokhtamish]

Why Saddam Hussein is launching a counterattack

[Tokhtamish]

In 636, as the Muslims swept out of Arabia and overran Palestine and Syria, the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius raised every soldier he could and made last ditch attempt to hold the Levant at the Battle of Yarmuk. For several days fighting was inconclusive, the lighter Arabs unable to overwhelm the Byzantine mailed lancers and the Byzantines, all their usual Arab auxiliary light cavalry having defected to the Muslims, unable to pin and destroy the more mobile Muslims.

Then a sandstorm arose. The Muslims attacked. In the confusion Byzantine command and control broke down. There was a panic and a slaughter. What was left of the Byzantine army streamed out of Syria forever.

A few years later the Persian king Khusrau II made a maximum effort to hold Iraq against the Muslims at Qadisiya. And again, there were several days of inconclusive fighting as the lighter Arabs could not overwhelm the Persian mailed lancers, and the Persians unable to close (both the Persian and Byzantine armies at the time relied on mailed lancers they called cataphracts supported by Bedouin light cavalry. In both cases the Bedouins had gone Muslim leaving the heavy cavalry without scouting and flank coverage.). Then a sandstorm arose. The Muslims attacked and overwhelmed the confused Persians.

Saddam knows all of this. So does every Arab. This sandstorm, the worst in quite some time, he sees as the hand of God delivering the infidel invader into his hand, blinding his planes and confusing his armies. If, as he sees it, Divine Providence has stretched out its hand on his behalf, how can he not go forth to do battle ?

And let us not forget that megalomaniacs sometimes do things like that. Launching the Battle of the Bulge destroyed the panzer reserves that might have held the Western Allies up on the West Wall until summer and therefore made no sense but something in Hitler could not sit on the defensive. Neither can Saddam sit on the defensive if he sees any opportunity to attack.

[TheConservator]

Perhaps, although Saddam is not particularly religious.

Also, the sandstorm is now over. There are blue skies over Baghdad.

[wastoute]

You got it wrong. Chirac knew March and April are when sandstorms arise in Iraq. From May on the Temp. will be a factor. Chirac thought if he could delay us til mid March he would win. WRONG.

[Tokhtamish]

He has become religious in recent years. He sees himself as Saladin, as the savior of Islam from the Zionist and the Crusader.

[anniegetyourgun]

Interesting to see how he 'got religion' as of late. Of course, he doesn't use his god quite as well as his god is using him.

[Tokhtamish]

Wastoute, I doubt that any Iraqi needs the French to tell him what the seasons are in his country. But this sandstorm is the worst in a very long time. Could he not see that as divine intervention ?

[niteowl77]

Could he not see that as divine intervention?

Intervention... or retribution. Depends on the context.

[crazykatz]

Well, the sandstorm didn't help him very much.... sandstorm BAH!

saddam's regime is shi+-toast... he better just high tail it outta BaghDodge!! The Cavalry and the Airborne is on the way and the Marines, and the Air Force and the Navy jets and the Marine jets and ALL the missles and the bombs...

Oh, yeah... our allies aren't taking a walk in the park, but TIME is on our side.

All that old crap about muslim armies defeating enemies because their allah loves them.... OH, PLEASE!! How Medieval and PRIMITIVE.

Never take a simitar to gun fight!! hahahhaha

[wastoute]

BS. I grew up in New Mexico. Sandstorms happen all the time. I have seen "sandstorms that you can't see ou hand in" regularly. I lived in Panama, too. I have seen rain you can't see past the hood in, happens every December in Panama. I never claimed either were the "Will of God." Pure propaganda. Chirac knew we would be hampered by sandstorms if he got us to delay. They knew this in Storm I, and I remember talking about it at the time (I was on Active Duty), the reason we wen't in Jan./Feb. at that time was to get in before the sandstorms.

[JohnnyZ]

Qadisiya = Quesadilla

heh heh :)

[PeoplesRep_of_LA]

Don't worry, you analysis was thoughtful and interesting. I have no idea what this "Wastoute" was so arguementative about, and it seems obvious he does not either. This does explain why they would reform their columns out of Baghdad and leaving Nasiera. They don't understand that our Satalite guided weapons don't use lasers like in Gulf War I, and were unaffected by the storm. I heard on the news this morning that those columns were completely destroyed. It seems the storm was from God.

[martianagent]

I think a better analogy would be the story about the Ismailians threatening to assasionate Mangu Khan and Hulagu extirpating the Ismailians from the planet root and branch and sacking Baghdad. No sandstorm ever saved anybody from a full-out mongol invasion and it isn't going to save Saddam Hussein now.

[thoughtomator]

Yep, if the sandstorm has any mythological significance, it signifies that the USA is not vulnerable to any sort of counteroffensive regardless of conditions. We signify a new, post-mythological era that is now dawning on the Middle East.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Saddam is religious alright. He has begun to think of himself as god.

[Blood of Tyrants]

In both cases, the sandstorms helped the attacking forces, not the defending.

[crazykatz]

I hope so...that muslim mythological stuff is holding up the progress of whole countries.

The muslims need to be shown that TIME marches on... try to play catch-up will you please mr./mrs. muslim!!

[mrsmith]

Interesting history: an Arabic "Divine Wind" myth.

[ravingnutter]

Perhaps, although Saddam is not particularly religious.

As reported on KTSA radio this morning...I was surprised...

(Detroit, MI) -- Over 20 years ago, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein visited Detroit and its Chaldean community and left with the key to the city. According to the "Detroit News," Saddam came to the Detroit area in 1980, when both Iraq and the United States agreed on their mistrust of Iran. He gave Detroit Sacred Heart Parish Pastor Jacob Yasso a check for $200 thousand, and Yasso gave him the key to the city with the compliments of then Mayor Coleman Young. Yasso says the money was used to pay off the church's debt and build a parish center, where American citizenship classes are now taught.

Source

[stripes1776]

According to the "Detroit News," Saddam came to the Detroit area in 1980, when both Iraq and the United States agreed on their mistrust of Iran.

Political alliances are not permanent. In WWII, the US and Soviet Union were allies, even though Stalin had killed millions more people in his country than Hitler. After that war, the Soviet Union became our enemy in the Cold War.

In the Iraq-Iran war of the 1980s, the US wisely backed Iraq. After the war, Hussein miscalculated and invaded Kuwait. He now poses a major threat to our security and must be eliminated.

[Tokhtamish]

Tactically offensive. The Iraqis meant to launch a major counterattack under cover of the sandstorm, just as Hitler launched the Battle of the Bulge during a snowstorm.

Yes, it is a sort of "Divine Wind" myth.

Arabs, like Chinese, are history-drenched. Just like even under Maoist China a newspaper would make a subtle point about some leading Communist Party personage by comparing his calligraphy with that of say, some Ming Dynasty official to employ an historical analogy, so Arabs constantly model present events around past events.