IRAQI RESISTANCE

Asia Times: Miscalculations and misconceptions

LONDON - With Iraqi resistance forces downing a second American
military helicopter in a week, veteran Iranian and Arab political analysts are
warning of "a debacle" awaiting the coalition forces, putting the blame
squarely on the decision to dissolve the Iraqi army overnight, and a
lack of adequate intelligence.

"One of the biggest mistakes of the coalition forces was to dissolve
the army and the security forces," Peyman Pejman of the Inter Press Service
quoted Brigadier-General Mohammed Abdullah Shahwani as saying in
Baghdad. Shahwani left Iraq in 1990 and became a part of Washington's covert
efforts to topple the Iraqi dictator.