Friday, December 27, 2002

The Street Going Home

According to this AP report, the Arab public is tired of Saddam's track record. It seems that braggarts are only admired as long as we let them get away with it. Now that his doom is imminent, his track record means that the public will stay home and hope for the best:

We are fed up with Saddam's wars and confrontations. They brought nothing but defeats, humiliation and disasters," al-Omari told The Associated Press. Like many people in the Middle East, al-Omari hopes any war on Iraq will be short and will target only Saddam's regime. He said his deepest worry is about the Iraqis who might be killed or suffer, not about Iraq's leadership. For years, Saddam skillfully played to Arab public opinion. But Jordanian political analyst Raja Talab said the Iraqi leader's popularity is waning and many Arabs now blame him for "leading the area to the edge of another catastrophe. People look for real heroes who can deliver and Saddam is only a drowning, defeated ruler who is clinging to the wreckage," Talab said.


War is imminent. XVIII Airborne Corps out of Jordan strike to Baghdad. Marines and British capture Basra region. V Corps feints to Euphrates with skeleton force. Turks and 10th Mountain out of the north.

Also, per globalsecurity.org, two infantry battalions of the Army National Guard activated to train in 3rd Infantry Division's base. Either guarding the base as division leaves or to provide additional infantry for Baghdad battle.

On to Baghdad.