Posted on 07/15/2002 4:05:48 PM PDT by varina davis
Iraqis told to prepare for war
President Saddam Hussein's powerful elder son Uday urged his father's regime, under threat of a US military strike, to prepare the Iraqi population for war.
As the Iraqi parliament pledged its full support for Saddam and his steps to defend the country, Uday recalled the Gulf War:
"The Iraqi population must be ... prepared on the psychological, military and national levels to oppose any enemy attack and support the burden of the war that risks being more ferocious than that of 1991."
In a document presented to parliament at a special session to discuss the threat of US attack, Uday, himself an MP, called for "strict security measures and the satisfaction of the basic needs of citizens" to avoid a repeat of the "treacherous acts" which Iraq witnessed in 1991.
Uday was referring to the Kurdish uprising in northern Iraq and that of Shiites in the south of the country in March 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War which saw a US-led coalition expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Preparations were underway and "we will teach the Americans a lesson they'll never forget," Iraqi Culture Minister Hamad Yussef Hammadi told reporters on the sidelines of the parliamentary session.
Foreign Minister Naji Sabri also later went on Iraqi satellite television to warn Baghdad would defend itself against any US attack, and appealed to other Arab countries to show their solidarity.
"Regarding the defence of the dignity and the interests of the nation, there is no flexibility. We will cut off the head of whomever lays their hands on the borders of Iraq," Sabri said.
MPs said in statement released at the session's end that they were "fully behind the command of President Saddam Hussein and support all steps he has taken or will take in the future to defend the security of Iraq, its independence and its national regime."
Parliament will also send delegations to Arab and Islamic countries as part of an information campaign on the US threats, which represent a "violation of the UN charter," Salem al-Qubaissi, head of the Iraqi parliament's committee for Arab and international affairs, told AFP.
Messages will also be sent to the US Congress, Qubaissi said, not ruling out the possibility of holding talks with senators "if they were ready for a just and fair discussion."
Qubaissi later told reporters the parliament would also propose an extraordinary meeting of the 22-member Arab League to discuss the US threats, as well as a similar meeting of the UN Security Council.
US President George W. Bush has renewed a pledge to use "all tools" at his disposal to oust Saddam, whom Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction.
The prospect of US military action was further heightened after July 4-5 talks between Baghdad and the United Nations on the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq broke down.
Monday's 90-minute parliamentary session was attended by most of Iraq's 250 MPs, about 20 of whom took the floor to urge neighbouring countries to oppose any facility their governments might lend to a US attack on the sanctions-hit country.
They also called for all borders to be opened to allow Arab volunteers who wanted to help defend Iraq to travel into the country.
Uday said in the document he submitted to parliament that such an attack would be launched from neighbouring Iran and Turkey, "which have been, historically, the origin of attacks against Iraq."
But he did not rule out "Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies taking part in carrying out a US plan against Iraq".
Agreed. We learned in the Gulf War that the Iraqi military would surrender so fast that the French would be impressed.
Costa Rica.
What lesson might that be? The lesson that whenever some little tinpot dictator starts blowng his horn, that we should make an example out of him, and quickly?
Deserves repeating. Some seem to believe that attacking Saddam and the rest will only make them respond with these weapons.
Fatal flaw in thinking. They'll do it anyway at some point whether we attack or not.
How much faster the Iraqi Army surrenders now compared to 1991?
"I'll tell you another thing. The VII Corps has made sure that no right-thinking SOB ever refers to goddamn Republican Guards as 'elite' again, because they ain't. You can look it up." -- Major General Paul Funk, Commander, 3rd Armored Division, Operation Desert Storm
I would suggest that those units who will undoubtably be put out in front of the Republican Guard be given every opportunity to surrender. Most of these people last time were people who had no desire to be there in the first place; they were used as cannon fodder. Make it known that they will not be harmed if they surrender unconditionally.
Then the al-Qaida types and the Republican guards will be left, and we may proceed to destroy them. Iraq will be a better place afterwards with these elements out of the way.
Uday was referring to the Kurdish uprising in northern Iraq and that of Shiites in the south of the country in March 1991, in the wake of the Gulf War which saw a US-led coalition expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Uday forgot to add his own troops surrendering in droves.
The lesson? That the Iraqi army is the best Arab army in the world!!!!! Which happens to mean they suck so bad they make the French look like the Zerg.
Strict security measures. Sounds like some army officers are going to be killed.
Just the thing to encourage the development of initiative and a willingness to risk in order to triumph in those officers' replacements :o)
What would have happened if that French tank brigade got to the Republican Guards first?
I'll put my hands up! No! I'll put my hands up.
That's got to be the ultimate sign that your country sucks: when your finest troops surrender to the French.
I hope they don't screw it up for themselves. Forever.
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