|
|
|
In a soon t be released book In the Company of Soldiers: A Chronicle of Combat by Rick Atkinson we learn some surprising things about the Iraq war. The US military was surprised at how quickly the Iraqi military collapsed. They never really put up a good defense.
Part of the reason is that Saddam never really thought the US would invade Iraq. He, like most Arabs, thought the US was too averse to taking casualties to really go to war. So he never really prepared. In addition, he thought any US invasion would come through Jordan.
Just prior to the war, the US sent a wave of phone calls to selected Iraqi officials. Unfortunately, the callers spoke such good Arabic; the officials did not believe they were Americans. They thought it was a loyalty test by Saddam.
They turned off their phones, which made it harder for them to communicate with each prior to the start of the war.
Posted by Ted at February 12, 2004 7:59 PM