Baath regime ordered Baghdad surrender

["Marvin Gandall" <marvin.gandall@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

There's an interesting piece in today's Washington Post on the collapse of
Baghdad which says the regime in effect surrendered the city by ordering the
Iraqi army and irregulars not to fight. This would seem to confirm the
Reuters photo which has been circulating on the internet that there was
something less than a spontaneous mass welcome for US forces.

In the end, it appears the Baathist leaders lost their nerve, and, as the
article notes, Baghdadis have been asking themselves why their city
collapsed without a fight. Many, of course, were exhausted by war and
sanctions and opted not to engage in an unorganized and hopeless struggle; a
Baathist militiaman told the Post how his unit came under fire from local
residents who did not want their neighbourhood attacked by US forces. But
the paper says the impulse to surrender seems to have come from above rather
than below, when senior Baathist officials ordered their forces to disband
and organized their escape. The circumstances surrounding the order and the
escape remain a mystery.

The article can be accessed at the Post's site, and I've posted it on
www.supportingfacts.com

Marv Gandall