Last week’s big War Against Terror news was the extermination of Saddam Hussein’s two sons in a firefight in Mosul (which we thought was the name of one of the characters in Fiddler On The Roof but never mind). According to Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, “The previous night, on the 21st, we had had an Iraqi citizen walk in and give us information that Uday and Qusay might be located at this residence. Over the course of the night we planned our operation, and we had all the conditions set in order to initiate our assault by 1000 hours (the next) morning . . . We used the bullhorn, and we did not get a response, and 10 minutes later, at 1010 hours, we began to enter the building.”I wonder how that went down exactly. Sanchez on bullhorn: “Is Uday in there?” Voice from residence, “Uday’s not here, man.” Blam blam blam blam. Ten minutes later, “Uday, you in there?” “Uday’s not here, man.” And so on.
Don’t get me wrong, the world is a better place without these two SOBs, but something just seems a bit odd. I mean, on one side you have four guys in a second floor room of a private residence armed with AK-47s and handguns. On the other, you have 200 elite troops with armored backup, air cover, and the full resources of the only remaining military superpower on the planet. The place is completely surrounded and the element of surprise is theirs.
And it takes six hours to not take the four guys out alive?
People have speculated that we had no choice because they (Uday and Qusay) “didn’t want to be taken alive.” That may be true, but think about this: we were tipped off that these High Value Targets were in the house (reportedly by the owner of the house). We prepare for 12 hours. But then we announced our presence by yelling through a bullhorn and giving them 10 minutes to get ready? What did we think they were doing during those 10 minutes — packing their Prada overnight bags for a trip to Guantanamo?
Another excuse is that if we’d waited them out, they’ve have had a chance to escape through a potential secret tunnel. Actually, it seems that the 10 minute head start would have been ample opportunity for that. And besides, they were in a second floor room. It’s not like they were in stately Hussein Manor where they could slide down a pole to a secret underground lair where the Baathmobile was waiting for them to make their escape.
So, for some presently unknown reason, the intent was to bring them back dead or not alive. Mission accomplished.
This article appears in Jul 30 – Aug 5, 2003.
