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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (36034)	8/5/2002 9:27:31 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Former Egyptian Chief of Staff Salah Halaby has some interesting comments on the state of the Iraqi Army and their likely response to a US invasion. story.news.yahoo.com Saddam Likely to Fall in Attack Sat Aug 3, 2:06 AM ET By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - For all Iraq's bluster in the face of the possibility Washington will use military means to oust President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites), his regime would collapse under a U.S. onslaught, military experts in the region say. Retired Gen. Salah Halaby, Egypt's former chief of staff, told The Associated Press in an interview that the Iraqi army is too weak and demoralized after the 1991 Gulf War ( news - web sites) and years of doing without new weapons "to be a serious match to the U.S troops and their smart weapons." "The Iraqi army has no chance whatsoever to stand steadfast and will fall like a sandcastle," said Halaby, who commanded Egyptian forces in the U.S.-led international coalition that drove Iraq out of Kuwait in 1991. The comments by Halaby and other Arab experts came as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee conducted hearings in Washington on a possible military attack on in Iraq. Those hearings raised the prospect that U.S. forces might have to stay in Iraq for some time should the country fall apart if Saddam is ousted. President Bush ( news - web sites) says his goal is Saddam's removal, but that there were as yet no plans for military action. Military experts in the Middle East and witnesses at the Washington hearings both warned of one danger should U.S. forces attack Saddam — that he would respond by using any available weapons of mass destruction on American forces, countries that were used to launch the U.S. onslaught or Israel. Halaby said that he believes Iraq's military would take a U.S. attack as an opportunity to turn on Saddam, who led Iraq into Kuwait and may be blamed by his men for the bitter defeat that followed. "I have no doubt that once the Iraqi army has the opportunity to pounce on Saddam, it will do it without any hesitation, because this army has been humiliated in the Gulf War and it wants to revenge its honor," Halaby said. He offered no views on who would lead the country should Saddam be ousted, but Iraqi army commanders who have defected are among those working closely with the United States to draw up plans for a government in post-Saddam Iraq. Former Iraqi Gen. Wafiq al-Samarraei, who defected in 1995, said U.S strategy should focus completely on Saddam. Once he is killed or caught, "the job is finished," al-Samarraei said from London in a telephone interview. Al-Samarraei, who worked as head of Iraqi army intelligence during the Gulf War, said the likelihood that Iraq would use chemical weapons or other weapons of mass destruction would increase if the U.S. military operation took too long. During the Gulf War, Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel and a few others at Saudi Arabia, where U.S troops were stationed, but the missiles carried only conventional warheads. Iraqi officials regularly boast that the country's forces are ready for any attack and would defeat invading troops. Newspapers in Baghdad reported Thursday that Saddam met his top air force officers Wednesday to discuss plans to enhance their capabilities. The commander of the Iraqi air force, Lt. Gen. Hamid Rija Shilah, assured Saddam during the meeting of "the air force fighters' readiness to confront and defeat the aggressors if they dare to approach our territories." Reports from inside Iraq suggest that Saddam has put the country's armed forces on a state of high alert. Saddam "has taken all necessary precautions as if the apocalypse was happening tomorrow," said Haroun Mohammed, an exiled Iraqi journalist who watches Iraqi affairs.