Iraqi deserters say the army's epic collapse isn't their fault

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"We had everything, all the necessary equipment, training, but we didn't have a leader," a soldier who asked to be called Hussein said Monday.

His brigade, stationed in northern Iraq for the last nine years, completely dissolved last week after the province's governor and many of the military's top leadership unexpectedly fled.

Hussein says he believes they were paid off by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), who led the charge in northern Iraq.

When Ahmed, a fellow soldier, heard a rumor that his commanders had vanished last week, he didn't believe it.

"We tried to make sure by calling them," he said, adding that he called their cell phones and designated military lines. "But we couldn't get in touch."

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/middle-east/iraq/140616/iraqi-deserters-ISIL-ISIS-mosul

Smart Bribes

Centcom's real secret weapon

A fascinating piece in the May 19 Defense News quotes Gen. Tommy Franks, chief of U.S. Central Command, confirming what had until now been mere rumors picked up by dubious Arab media outlets—that, before Gulf War II began, U.S. special forces had gone in and bribed Iraqi generals not to fight.

"I had letters from Iraqi generals saying, 'I now work for you,' " Franks told Defense News reporter Vago Muradianin a May 10 interview.

The article quotes a "senior official" as adding, "What is the effect you want? How much does a cruise missile cost? Between one and 2.5 million dollars. Well, a bribe is a PGM (precision-guided munition)—it achieves the aim, but it's bloodless and there's zero collateral damage."

One official is quoted as saying that, in the scheme of the whole military operation, the bribery "was just icing on the cake." But another says that it "was as important as the shooting part, maybe more important. We knew that some units would fight out of a sense of duty and patriotism, and they did. But it didn't change the outcome because we knew how many of these (Iraqi generals) were going to call in sick."

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2003/05/smart_bribes.html