Juan Tomayo for Knight Ridder Newspapers reports Iraq moving troops, artillery closer to Kuwaiti border. Yeah, but:
Most of the Iraqi troops look ragged, and some complain that they are eating only bread and aren't being paid, said officers in the 32-nation U.N. Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission, based on the border.In the unlikely event that Saddam's pet thugs don't do a bug out, I guess it's going to be an uptown Saturday night in Baghdad. If we're lucky, all the peaceniks who claim to be on "shield duty" will congregate there with their fascist pals.
"Some say their families were put under protective custody" to make sure they fight, "and try to sell us things just to eat," said a UNIKOM officer who traveled recently on the Iraqi side of the 150-mile border.
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U.S. military experts have long predicted that American troops would face little resistance from Iraq's ill-trained and poorly equipped regular army, largely stationed far from Baghdad. More formidable and elite Republican Guard and Special Republic Guard units guard the capital, some 280 miles north of the border with Kuwait.
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UNIKOM officers who patrol the 9-mile-wide demilitarized zone, created after the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and who travel in southern Iraq provided a firsthand independent look at war preparations and troop morale in the region.
"They are terrified," said one army captain, clad in a blue beret. "They won't surrender at the first shot. They will surrender when they hear the first American tank turn on its engine."
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Some Iraqi soldiers were armed with British pre-World War II machine guns, prompting speculation that they may be militiamen.
Iraqi troops mostly go unshaven and wear tattered uniforms, sometimes with sandals instead of boots. Some complain that they have been paid only a half-month's salary in the past three months, the officers said.
Soldiers have told visitors that they receive one pizza-like piece of bread at each meal and sometimes beg food from passing civilians and UNIKOM personnel.
