Saddam planned insurgency

[bemildred]

Old news, but nice to see it being reported.

Washington - Saddam Hussein planned the insurgency that has claimed more than 1 000 US military lives in Iraq well before his capture one year ago, a US magazine reported on Sunday.

US News and World Report quoted a military intelligence report as saying that in late 2002 Saddam sent more than 1 000 security and intelligence officials to two military facilities near Baghdad for two months of guerrilla training.

"Anticipating his defeat, intelligence reports show, the Iraqi dictator began laying the foundation for an insurgency as Washington worked to convince the United Nations and allies around the world that Saddam had to go," said the magazine.

Baath party operatives still close to Saddam's organisation and Sunni Muslim extremists from inside and outside of Iraq play central roles in the insurgency, according to the report which quoted the work of US analysts and military intelligence and assessments by British intelligence.

News24

[aquart]

1. So this gives us the right to murder Iraqis?

[Ruffhowse]

2. I'm sick of people still trying to blame Saddam for the violence in Iraq.

The current unrest there is due to one thing, the unwanted occupation by the United States and our brutal treatment of the Iraqi people. These people wanted to be free of Saddam, but like most people, they don't want their future dictated to them by an outside power. Saddam is yesterday's news in Iraq. Quit using him as an excuse for our inexcusable behavior.

[shuffnew]

4. True... typical of our media... eom

[shuffnew]

3. Part of the master plan?

reason he has not had trial yet?

[jaysunb]

5. What a crock......

n/t

[nosmokes]

6. i'm not buying it.

if saddam was that great a strategist he'd still be in power, fcol. this is just your plain old run of the mill it's our country, get the fuck out, tyvm.

[clem_c_rock]

7. ONCE AGAIN - Americans are probably the stupidest people on earth

If anyone believes this they should be immediately drafted on the front lines.

[Digit]

8. If the OTHER reasons didn't stick as to why we had to take down Saddam...

How about THIS one.....

[bemildred]

9. Well opinions will vary.

There was plenty of discussion of this before and in the early
stages of this war, that Saddam had planned and prepared for a
guerilla conflict, that he had read Gen Giap. That doesn't mean
that he IS Gen. Giap. but fuck, I predicted a quick transition to
a guerilla conflict:

bemildred (5853 posts) Mar-18-03, 01:44 PM (ET)
Mar-18-03, 01:44 PM (ET)
Iraqi war strategy.
Seems like a no-brainer to me. Wondered what wiser heads
down here in the dungeon might think.

1.) Standup conventional fight is a loser, so this will be
avoided, if possible. Maybe a test of two to see how bad
it is.

2.) Disperse and conserve forces, use deceptive methods to
attract attack away from hard assets. Wait/hope for most
of the scarce/expensive hi-tech stuff to get used up.

3.) Set lots of traps. Do anything else that causes delay,
buy all the time you can.

4.) Play for follow-on non-conventional fight. Let Baghdad
and other "loyal" cities be "taken" with relative ease, and
then start your counter-attack in hopes of inflicting high
damage on the occupiers.

Regards.


Here's another take from a not particularly liberal slant:

WASHINGTON - There are still a thousand reasons why Iraq is NOT Vietnam, but after a year of bitter combat in that place the points of similarity and intersection are growing both in number and intensity, and that's not good news.

My thoughts lately have turned to the words of two wily old warrior-strategists, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap of Vietnam and the Prussian Carl von Clausewitz.

In an early and eerily prescient analysis of the future course of the Viet Minh guerrilla war against the French colonial occupiers, Giap wrote: "The enemy will pass slowly from the offensive to the defensive. The blitzkrieg will transform itself into a war of long duration. Thus, the enemy will be caught in a dilemma: He has to drag out the war in order to win it and does not possess, on the other hand, the psychological and political means to fight a long-drawn-out war."

Giap was right about the French, and the same principle and the same outcome would apply to the American armies that replaced the French armies.

Military.Com

[MasonJar]

10. I am surprised that the stumpies didn't blame Bill and Hillary.

[pinerow]

11. And a partidge in a pear tree...if the report is from military

intelligence, then I consider to be suspect.