(August 12, 2017 at 11:39 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(August 12, 2017 at 10:43 pm)Jehanne Wrote: Most of Iraq's soldiers were irregulars; that's one reason why they were so easily defeated. Also, many of the professional soldiers despised Saddam Hussein, which is why he would not allow them within the city limits of Baghdad for fear of a coup. Indeed, many of the Iraqi air-force defected to Iran before the shooting ever started!!
What makes you think DPRK regulars would be more loyal? Would you be willing to fight to the death for a regime that starves your cousins? Would you do that much?
Soldiers are not robots. They have to have a reason to fight. Unit loyalty will give them coherence in a tactical situation, but once the shit hits the fan, even that is often traded for intact skin and home with the family.
Those same Iraqis you disparage went over the top in trench warfare rivalling the ferocity seen on the Western Front in 1916. And no doubt the NoKor foot soldier will fight hard, too ... on short rations, knowing that family members back home will be punished for any dereliction on his part. But that is not a good recipe for an efficient combat machine. Don't take my word for it; look up the history of NKVD divisions on the Eastern Front in WWII, prodding the Soviet infantry forward with threats of the GULag and "11 grams". Indoctrination on goes so far.
Regarding the Iraqi air force, they point up the above aspect of combat civilians rarely understand: weapons are only as good as the men who wield them. Give me a good man with a bayonet over a weak man with an AK any day of the week.
They fought tooth & nail 60 years ago; what has changed since then?
