Iraqi soldiers wave white flag

[Luvian]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/ar...TICLE_ID=31423

EYE ON THE GULF Iraqi soldiers wave white flag of surrender Saddam's troops try to give themselves up to Brits practicing war exercises -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: March 9, 2003 3:15 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com Terrified Iraqi soldiers who thought the war had already started, crossed the Kuwait border and tried to surrender to British forces, according to a report in the London Sunday Mirror. The drama unfolded last Monday, when a dozen troops waved the white flag as British paratroopers tested mortars and artillery weapons to make sure they were working. The Iraqis found a way across the fortified border, which is sealed off with barbed-wire fencing, watchtowers and huge trenches. The stunned troops were forced to tell the Iraqis they weren't firing at them, and ordered them back to their home country, telling them it was too early to surrender. "The British guys on the front-line could not believe what was happening. They were on pre-war exercises when all of a sudden these Iraqis turned up out of nowhere, with their hands in the air, saying they wanted to surrender. "They had heard firing and thought it was the start of the war,'' a British Army source in Kuwait told the Mirror. ''The Paras are a tough, battle-hardened lot but were moved by the plight of the Iraqis. There was nothing they could do other than send them back. ''They were a motley bunch and you could barely describe them as soldiers – they were poorly equipped and didn't even have proper boots. Their physical condition was dreadful and they had obviously not had a square meal for ages. No one has ever known a group of so-called soldiers surrender before a shot has been fired in anger,'' the source said.

[Indemaijinj]

This is good news.

If Saddams forces has such bad morale this invasion might be more bloodless than first imagined.

[Sir Heinrich Godfrie IV]

I read a similar news report yesterday about this very incident. I also remember seeing a related story on Matt Drudge's site, the "drudgereport.com", roughly a week ago. IIRC, it stated that many of the non-elite Republican guard were already preparing and hiding their white flags in anticipation for the war.

It just goes to show that many of the Iraqi soldiers (and people for that matter), are eager to have Saddam's regime overthrown so that they can wake up from this nightmare.
Now don't get me wrong, I still think it's going to be incredibly difficult to invade the city of Baghdad and keep it stable afterwords.

[Wutang]

The Iraqi army was never very highly rated.

The Republican Guards are probably not fully behind saddam either if or when the war starts. Even Saddam doesn't trust his Republican Guards anymore. He instead created the Special Republican Guards (SRG) that serves him in baghdad or wherever. Talk about really destroying the morale of your own troops.

I think the only thing real threat are his security police units and his own tribal guards.

But as for those Iraqis that surrendered, they probably shouldn't have gone back to their trenches. There's probably an Iraqi commissar type right now hunting them down.

[ 03-11-2003, 04:45 AM: Message edited by: Wutang ]

Prepare for much more of this. I have several Monty Python quotes I would like to use, but it would offend some of our members....so...I won't.

[Charean]

This is a repeat of what happened during Desert Storm.

The people have no allegiance to Saddam and want to escape any way they can.

It is truly sad what he has done to his country.