Iraqi general says U.S. will easily topple Saddam

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - A dissident Iraqi general said in a weekend interview the United States will discover that a military operation to topple President Saddam Hussein is easier than expected.

Major-General Najib al-Salhi, who headed a Republican Guards division and then became a member of joint chiefs of staff before defecting in 1995, told Reuters he expected the Iraqi army to fold immediately if the United States attacked.

"Morale is at a disastrous level and the troops are sick of continuous war. Saddam will find himself surrounded by a few hundred soldiers," Salhi said confidently while sipping tea at an Iraqi restaurant in west London.

The general was speaking after a closed-door meeting of exiled Iraqi officers in London to discuss efforts to topple Saddam and a transition to civilian rule with minimum bloodshed.

The officers urged the United States to try to remove Saddam without destroying the country, harming civilians or targeting troops not involved in protecting the regime.

Trying to remove Saddam became an apparent U.S. priority after President George W. Bush declared a "war on terrorism" in reaction to the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Bush vowed last week to use "all tools" to oust Saddam, accused by Washington of trying to build weapons of mass destruction, but has yet to approve military action.

"The United States appears to be preparing all options, such as land war, covert operations, special forces...It will not need all of this," Salhi said, adding that the Iraqi army was a shadow of its strength before the 1991 Gulf War and had received no significant supplies since.

Under Saddam, Iraq fought a war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. It invaded Kuwait in 1990 before being ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in the Gulf War.

Since then the country has been under U.N. sanctions and Western planes have been policing northern and southern Iraq, ostensibly to protect Kurdish and Shi'ite populations against a perceived threat from Saddam.

Bush's father, who was president during the Gulf War, urged Kurds and Shi'ite Muslims to rebel but then did nothing to prevent Saddam using air power to crush the short-lived revolts.

The Iraqi army, Salhi said, was so divided along sectarian lines that it could not fight as unit.

He said Sunni Muslims from Takrit, the birthplace of Saddam in central Iraq, comprised almost all of the Special Republican Guard, entrusted with the personal protection of the president.

Sunnis from other areas in central Iraq make up most of the rest of the Republican Guard, he said.

"The Shi'ites are mostly relegated to the infantry," said Salhi. "They will be the first ones to leave their posts and either join the advancing forces of go home."

Salhi dismissed U.S. concerns about Saddam's possible possession of chemical and biological weapons, saying the Iraqi leader did not have means to deliver such weapons.

The United States, Salhi said, must declare that it is only after Saddam and not his troops, otherwise it would not have support of the Iraqi people or the army.

"This cannot be two armies facing each other. The United States must make it clear that it is only after Saddam's head," Salhi said.

He forecast a scenario in which Saddam would be on the run, suggesting that U.S. aircraft policing the "no fly zones" could be used to back an advance on Baghdad by rebel forces from the north.

"Saddam will try to escape, but he find that he has nowhere to go," Salhi said. "We will not be able to put him on trial. The people will get to him first."

Morale is at a disastrous level and the troops are sick of continuous war. Saddam will find himself surrounded by a few hundred soldiers," Salhi said

I suspected this, Saddam's military is a house of cards.

It's a cheap observation but the fact that this guy gives his name, and is sipping tea in a London restaurant, speaks volumes. There are quite a few other military-political siuations in which such a dissident general would be speaking from underneath a paper bag with holes cut in it, if he were alive and able to speak at all.

When that scum commonly known as Saddam Hussein is cut down in a hail of bullets, and his decrepit body is left lying face up with contemptous staring from the Iraqi masses including his inner circle who 'offed him', I suggest Freepers consider printing out the choicest color photographs, and mailing them (without any comment and with haste) to the Korean Workers' Party in Pyongyang, North Korea.

The automotons should get the message up there slaving under dictator and mass murderer Kim Jong il. That buzzard's time is limited, too, IMHO.

Why, you think Saddam has the connections to kill off dissidents in countries like the UK and US? If so, what's stopping him?

told Reuters he expected the Iraqi army to fold immediately if the United States attacked.

Well, Duuuuuhh....

More paranoia for Saddam. Let him try to figure out which commanders he needs to kill and which ones to keep. I would sincerely hope that some of those military commanders still in Iraq would see that the best way to save themselves, their country and the lives of their soldiers would be just to put a bullet in the head of Saddam and his offspring and install themselves as a ruling tribunal.

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