Approved For Release 2000/Ofi/
            ,Qp~,: ~Cl -RDP9~-007 00020002-0
            'ON POST
            MONDAY, NOVEMBER
            JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA         
                                                    

            Saddam Pulls Back Elite Forces''        
                                                    

            lassified Pentagon reports predict that them in the air. These boys
                                                    are "the lowest, class of
                                                    

                                                    
            thousands of Iraqi soldiers-scared youngreservists that Saddarn Hussein
            C                                       has put on, the'
                                                    

                                                    ,
            men being used as cannon fodder on the  tripwire against opposing forces,"
            front                                   one intelligeAc~.
                                                    

            lines-would surrender in the first days source told us.
            of a war in                             
                                                    

            the Persian Gulf.                       Saddam's crack troops are his
                                                    Republica'n: -Guard
                                                    

            That information has not trimmed the    divisions, numbering about
                                                    140,000 men. They are
                                                    

            Pentagon's casualty estimates, which    battle tested and formidable.
            say that tens                           But they are not in
                                                    

            of thousands of Americans could die in  Kuwait. Saddam used 80,000
            the first few                           of the guards~to
                                                    

            weeks 6f the conflict.                  invade Kuwait Aug. 2 and had
                                                    planned to keep
                                                    

            But the classified reports say many of  them there. When the United
            the Iraqi                               States respoAded
                                                    

            troops in or near Kuwait have no heart  with troops, Iraqi military
            for a fight.                            strategists looked at':
                                                    

            Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has put  their maps and realized they
            his                                     didn't want t~~ir best
                                                    

            youngest and least trained troops in    and brightest on the front
            Kuwait while                            lines in Kuwait where
                                                    

            he saved the best to protect Iraq.      they could be decimated in
                                                    the opening days.of a
                                                    

            Central Intelligence Agency reports indicate;
                                                    battle.
                                                    

            these low-level troops are easily bribed~
            by the-                                 About two weeks after the invasion,
                                                    Saddam
                                                    

            Kuwaiti resistance. The going rate to   pulled the Republican Guards
            drive a car                             back to Iraq. About
                                                    

                                                    .
            across the Saudi Arabia-Kuwait border   80,000 of them are fanned out
            without                                 in a line of defenge,
                                                    

            being searched is $5, The possibility   and another 60,000 are in Baghdad
            that the car                            to prolt~ct
                                                    

            carries a gun doesn't worry an Iraqi    Saddam from a coup or from
            soldier enough                          a U.S. paratrooper
                                                    

            to turn away the bribe.                 assault.
                                                    

            He is more worried about the 200,000-plusIraq boasts of 955,000 soldiers,
            U.S.                                    but intelligence
                                                    

            troops massing outside Kuwait. It is    reports say most have never
            not so much                             seen battle and area
                                                    

            the numbers, but the wild stories that  roughly equivalent in readiness
            have spooked                            to U.S. National
                                                    

            these teenage Iraqi defenders.          Guard forces. Saddam said he
                                                    would raise at least:.,
                                                    

            The Kuwaiti rebels have been feeding    100,000 more troops after the
            those                                   invasion, but his
                                                    

            soldiers a line about America breeding  nation of 16 million people
            a special                               simply does not,have;
                                                    

            race of men who are more than seven feetenough men to keep that promise.
            tall and                                
                                                    

            have eyes to see in the dark and throughAlthough the Iraqi claim of
            walls.                                  having nearly 1
                                                    

            The Iraqi draftees may not be that gullible,million men under arms and
            but                                     battle hardened is a lie,
                                                    

            they are afraid. Some have confided to  U.S. military planners don't
            Kuwaitis                                think a war with Iraq
                                                    

            that e have a" P1 ted recently the      
            Approved FQFnkW9A1%fh sel'"#Xin'o~MPP96-047~#W*W
            ilig COX                                
                                                    

                                                    30,000
            white handkerchiefs from their pockets  Americans could die in the
            and wave                                first 20 days of a war.