Saddam's Address

[Mike AI]

The reason some Iraqis are fighting more is that Saddam learned from the first war, where there were many thousands of soldiers giving up. Now Saddam has put his special troops in all units. So it is like the Russian COmmunist did with their "political officers" who would put a bullet in you if you even looked like you would run, or try to surrender.

Another issue we are having is that when we came in 1991, we DID ambandon those people... and when we left, thousands were masacred by Saddam. So that is why many are holding back judgement, and not getting excited until they know we are staying in Iraq for good - or at least ovethrowing Saddam completely.

A final issue is that many of the people who were part of the regime, those who benefited, and who opressed their people - they know they have no where to go and will not be part of the future New Iraq. So its a do or die thng for them.

This is the only way you can explain 40 lightly armed men attacking armoured units - it is SUICIDE.... I beleive Rumsfield call these guys Dead Enders.

As far as Saddam's speech - I still think it was pre-recorded, before the conflict started. One of the units Saddam praised was one that gave up very soon into the war. Saddam and his top people are MASTERS of propaganda....

From what I understand we have been trying to not go in blasting, that we have been trying to be humane, and give people a chance to surrender.... thus we are putting a burden on our troops, and putting them at a higher risk. It is been said that we may be changing this forward stance, since IRaqis are using it against us. I hope we change our rules of engagement. Instead of trying to talk IRaqis out of buildings, or firing small arms fire, trying to get them to get out because we do not want to cause much damage - I think we need to start calling in the 2,000 lb bombs.

We need to use ALL of our advantages, and not hold back anymore....