Looking at that Cockburn book now. It discusses this a bit in Chapter 7. Still absorbing it and it looks like a few factors were involved, but one thing mentioned on 166-167 is that, "Any Iraqi unit that defected en masse would certainly evoke a violent response from Saddam. . .Resisting the counterattack, therefore, would require help from the Pentagon in the form of air support. But the U.S. military was very dubious about involving itself in fighting in Iraq. 'I would go to the JCS. . .and say, 'If I can identify a military unit that is ready to mutiny, will you adopt it?'' recalls one CIA official involved in the Iraq operation. 'The answer was never yes. It was always 'We'll get back to you.'" Beyond that there is discussion of some stuff related to what's mentioned in the previous post. BTW, later in the chapter it looks like there's some interesting stuff on Bob Baer.