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| Iraq |
| A Foe That Collapsed From Within |
| 2003-07-20 |
| Another long but good WaPo piece that tells the world what Rantburg has known for a while: the average Iraqi soldier was not equipped, trained, supplied or led to fight the US. Just the first few paragraphs here. At 8:30 p.m. on April 7, two days before the fall of Baghdad, Iraqi Col. Abdul Kareem Abdul Razzaq assembled his remaining soldiers and looked into their heartbreakingly tired, dispirited faces, he recounted in an interview last week. "The [U.S.] Air Force is bombing, there’s a huge American Army coming we can’t fight, we are losing control," he told them. "We’ve been ordered to continue fighting. What do you think we should do?" The men — only 600 of his original 1,500 soldiers had not deserted or been killed during the battle for Baghdad’s airport — were nearly unanimous in their decision to take their Kalashnikov rifles and go home. "I gave the order to retreat," Abdul Razzaq said, his face contorted by deep furrows and an anguished grimace. "If I had given the order for my soldiers to stay, they’d all be killed." Continues ... |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 If he had given the order for his soldiers to stay, he would be the one killed, nevermind... |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-7-20 9:50:44 AM |