Regime Thought War Unlikely, Iraqis Tell U.S. | NYT

[Ediacara]

Regime Thought War Unlikely, Iraqis Tell U.S.
By THOM SHANKER

Published: February 12, 2004

ASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — A complacent Saddam Hussein was so convinced that war would be averted or that America would mount only a limited bombing campaign that he deployed the Iraqi military to crush domestic uprisings rather than defend against a ground invasion, according to a classified log of interrogations of captured Iraqi leaders and former officers.

Mr. Hussein believed that a "casualty-averse" White House would order a bombing campaign that Iraq could withstand, according to the secret report, prepared for the Pentagon's most senior leadership and dated Jan. 26. And the Iraqi Defense Ministry, in a grand miscalculation, believed that any ground offensive would come across the border with Jordan.

The study, a rough-draft history of the war from the perspective of Iraqi leaders, offers a scathing history of a Stalinist, paranoid leadership circle in Baghdad that guaranteed its own destruction. The interrogations yielded a portrait of a government disconnected from reality in peace and in war, where members of Mr. Hussein's inner circle routinely lied to him and each other about Iraqi military capacities.

More at the New York Times

[Alopenia]

1. You don't underestimate American resolve

I thought Saddam might have learned that the first time.

[Zhade]

7. Well, dictators can be self-absorbed as well as evil.

Just look at the traitor currently in the White House!

[54anickel]

2. Hell, I didn't think the idiot son of an asshole would actually pull it

off at first either.

[Zhade]

8. Isn't that from a song?

" idiot son of an asshole " - rings a bell...

[54anickel]

9. Yep. One of my favorites!

http://www.ericblumrich.com/idiot.html

[einniv]

3. This caught my eye.

"where members of Mr. Hussein's inner circle routinely lied to him and each other about Iraqi military capacities."

Isn't that a white house myth mostly? The hussein-made-me-do-it defense.

[Columbia]

4. Wasn't there that public affairs guy?

He routinely lied about the progress of American forces during the war? What was his name?

[UpInArms]

10. sounds a lot like the current mal-administration and its

cabinet (imho)

[daleo]

5. Do you trust a classified log?

This seems like fluff to support the "Saddam's lies were so good even we believed them" theory, or something like that. Why would he think they U.S. army would come through Jordan, when Kuwait has been in the U.S. military's pocket since the Gulf War?

This news smells like a log.

[wildwww2]

6. Yes, but Bu$h Co. knew a war was the only way to stay viable at election

time. Even with BBV going for them the putrid pukes need a war to swing enough chicken poop americans to be afraid enough to stab themselves in the back and vote for someone with an "R" behind his or her name. Fear is a well used tool by rich spoiled brats who cannot get their way by any other means. And Iraq was unfinished Bu$h family revenge bussiness anyway.
Peace
Wildman
Al Gore is My President