Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=4/16/03

TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / SOLDIER

NUMBER=5-53680

BYLINE=LAURIE KASSMAN

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The U-S led war in Iraq relied in large part on American supremacy in the air and hi-technology weapons. There was little doubt in the minds of coalition commanders they could defeat the Iraqi army. But what did the Iraqi soldiers think about their prospects? Correspondent Laurie Kassman has talked with an officer in the Iraqi army and has this report from Baghdad.

TEXT: At the start of the war, 30 year old Saleh Abdullah Mahdi al-Juburi was part of Iraq's second division, based in Kufri, in the northern province of Sulaimaniya.

But the Iraqi major did not stay there for long.

On the fifth day, after Turkey refused to let American troops use its territory to launch a northern offensive, he and the 700 men he commanded moved south toward Baghdad -- along with nearly four-thousand other troops in their brigade. Another brigade of four-thousand joined them the next day.

As he sipped a glass of sugary tea in a hunting club in central Baghdad that was once the favored playground of Saddam Hussein's son Uday, Major Juburi told the story of the fall of Baghdad from the Iraqi side of the battle.

/// 1ST JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATION///

If we only had air cover for our troops and hi-tech missiles I do not think the Americans would have been able to come into Baghdad.

/// END ACT ///

Instead, he says the non-stop massive U-S air strikes between the 12th and 15th days of the war took a heavy toll -- killing 800 of the four-thousand troops of his brigade.

/// 2ND JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATION ///

We knew we could not match the American air power, but we thought we could increase their losses to a point the Americans would say the Iraqis are an equal match for us and they would stop the war.

/// END ACT ///

It was not until the 19th day of the war that Major Juburi's brigade battled U-S Marines on the ground. He says his forces pushed the Marines back and never met them in battle again. They were afraid to face us, he says.

The father of three fought to defend Baghdad until the city fell to coalition forces. Faster, he said, than anyone had expected.

On the morning of April 8th, his commander ordered the troops to withdraw back to the north and await their next orders. Some men defected and went home to protect their families. Others followed him back north, tired and full of despair.

/// 3RD JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATION ///

We knew then that the war was over. Why would we go back north when the biggest battle was in Baghdad. Our commander says he was sorry for what had happened and told us all to go home.

/// END ACT ///

On April 9th, he headed home to Tikrit, a day he says he will never forget.

When he arrived at his house, he took off his military uniform and locked himself in his bedroom for the next five days.

/// 4TH JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR ///

At that moment, I felt helpless. I would have put a bullet to my head and committed suicide. But I am a Muslim and it is against my religion. But this was how mad I was. I don't like to see such humiliation.

/// END ACT ///

Major Juburi says he is angry, angry at Saddam Hussein and at the United States.

/// 5TH JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR ///

I blame Saddam Hussein because he was not a good political leader. I blame the United States because they wanted our oil.

/// END ACT ///

And he blames his military commanders for moving the Republican Guard south from Baghdad to meet the advancing coalition forces that had already isolated the southern cities of Najaf, Karbala, Nasariyah and Basra.

He says it was a big mistake.

Major Juburi is no stranger to war. He joined the army during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s. He was part of the Iraqi invasion force in Kuwait in 1990.

Losing Kuwait he says was not important to him but losing Baghdad was another matter.

Tears well up in his eyes as he explains.

/// 6TH JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATOR ///

Losing the war is one thing, but losing Baghdad is another. Baghdad is like losing the thing you hold dearest to you. Losing your country is bigger even than losing the men who fought with you to defend it.

/// END ACT ///

He has come to Baghdad for the first time since the end of the war. It is painful, he says, to see American troops on the city streets.

/// 7TH JUBURI ACT IN ARABIC AND FADE TO TRANSLATION ///

To me, it's occupation.

/// END ACT ///

Major Juburi says the American forces allowed Iraqi troops to transport their dead back to their homes for proper burial. In the end, his brigade had lost more than one-fourth of its four-thousand troops -- one-thousand-four hundred men in all, including 200 of the 700 men he commanded. (Signed)

NEB/LMK/KL/MEM/RH