(Jerusalem Post) - Amir Taheri Saddam's war plan aims first to slow down the advance of coalition forces as much as possible. He hopes to do this by creating a tidal wave of refugees, including large numbers of army deserters, in the densely populated southern provinces bordering Kuwait. Saddam wants to leave would-be refugees no escape route except toward the south, in the direction of the coalition forces. At some point, he may use chemical weapons to foment panic among the population and thus force it to flee toward Kuwait. Saddam also plans to hide his best and most loyal forces behind units of the regular army, in a sense using the Iraqi army as cannon fodder. Another goal is to maximize civilian casualties in the hope of shocking world public opinion, especially in the U.S., into even stiffer opposition to the war. This is why Saddam has positioned almost all of his best assets in densely populated areas. Saddam told his commanders Sunday: "We shall see how many Iraqis the aggressors are prepared to kill." He hopes that his tactics will slow the coalition advance toward Baghdad for several weeks, during which his European friends could go to the UN Security Council and ask for an immediate cease-fire.
2003-03-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive