Dr Frank points to this piece of unmitigated hilarity...
During these meetings, Saddam usually questions the top brass on their preparedness. On one occasion, Saddam asked the Republican Guard commanders: "Are you following the battles between your Palestinian brothers and the Zionist entity? What have you learned from the use the enemy makes of armored vehicles? What technological development do you see they have added to the tanks?"
The Republican Guard commanders answered him, "Sandbags are placed on the tanks to stop the bullets." "Right," responded Saddam, "This is one means used by the enemy. But what else...? The enemy used its armored vehicles against Palestinians the wrong way... but the enemy introduced a technological development and I ask you, what is it? You said 'sandbags' and that is correct, but what are the details of the armor protecting [the infantry forces]? I want to make sure that you, as armored corps officers, noticed it in order to benefit from it – or perhaps it passed before your eyes on television without you thinking it was important? I noticed it, even though I am not an armored corps officer. I noticed that each enemy tank has a machine gun, and I don't think that each of your tanks has a machine gun?!" The nice part about being a bloody-handed tin-hat dictator is that you can have people shot if they point out that you've just made a fool of yourself in the course of giving your "field guidance."
Oh, and Sammy, don't forget to tell your guys to use those big-ass active infrared searchlights mounted next to the main guns on those T72s. They're great for picking out any infantry creeping up on you at night. Matter of fact, you should probably tell 'em to leave 'em on all the time... |