Richard Norton-Taylor in Camp As Sayliyah, Qatar Tuesday March 11, 2003 The Guardian
Saddam Hussein is preparing for a "Stalingrad siege" of Baghdad against advancing Allied forces which could be slowed down by the capture of prisoners of war, a displaced population, and the use of chemical weapons against civilians, the commander of UK forces in the Gulf warned yesterday.
In his first interview since taking up his post, Air Marshal Brian Burridge described the Iraqi leader as a "dangerous bastard" whose regime needed to be removed for the sake of his own people and regional stability.
He said his greatest fear was "the use of chemical weapons against the indigenous population of Iraq". Saddam had the potential "to cause a great deal of suffering", he said. "We don't know what he has up his sleeve."
Air Marshal Burridge was speaking to the Guardian in an airconditioned hangar in the spartan base in the Gulf state of Qatar, which plays host to the forward HQ of America's central command. Across sandy wasteland, dotted with satellite dishes and cartons of mineral water, lies the hangar comprising the makeshift base of Anglo-US forces' overall commander, American general Tommy Franks.
Air Marshal Burridge, 53, insisted that all British forces would remain under British command and he answered to the British chiefs of staff and, ultimately, to Tony Blair. They were under the "tactical control" of US commanders - with the exception of 2,000 American marines under the command of a British brigadier - and he and senior British officers under him could always hold up a "red card" if they objected to American orders.
As for Iraq's military doctrine, he said it is based on the Soviet model of defence in depth. "[Saddam] is going for a Stalingrad siege. He wants to entice us into urban warfare," said Air Marshal Burridge.
But that, he added, made two assumptions: that it would lead to hand-to-hand fighting and Iraqi troops would want to engage in it. "There has to be doubts."
Most military analysts agree that Baghdad is certain to be the most serious battleground of any war. Some experts suggest that it may provide the only real fighting of any note in the entire conflict.
However, few analysts would go so far as to compare a war in Baghdad with the battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 200 days and cost almost 1 million Soviet and German casualties. Air Marshal Burridge said that Saddam had two options: to go or stand and fight."No one is suggesting a campaign will lay waste to Iraq. No one is suggesting it will be like Grozny [the capital of Chechnya]; postmodern warfare is not attritional. If they fight, we'll hit them hard".
He said that, thanks to intelligence,"we know where every moving part [of Iraqi forces] is and technology allows us to go round them. He added: "If we have to go to war, the minute we cross the border, the bits we have passed, we will consider them postwar and must be nimble with humanitarian aid".
But he said military commanders were "inately cautious and conservative". The last thing they wanted was to generate expectations because of "perceptions of super-surgical operations". He questioned whether Saddam would set fire to oil wells. "Setting fire to oil wells is a pretty inadequate weapon," he said. "If Saddam's boys want to torch the oilfields, I think the Iraqis themselves will have something to say about this. It is not a military weapon but an economic and environmental weapon."
To say war would be all about oil is "complete rubbish," he added. Asked about the anti-war movement in Britain, he replied: "Start with the guys on the ground. They are impervious to it. They're focused. They have a job to do. They recognise their duty and get on with it".
But he added: "It would be nice to know you have solid political support when you are into a war of choice. That would be a luxury and very unusual. "Warfare has changed, and society has changed, and the notion of international relations has changed".
During the cold war, he knew where he would be fighting, the weather, the name of his enemy. He compared his job then to "the second violin of the London Symphony Orchestra. You had a sheet of music with clear notation". Now, he said, "it's jazz, improvising." His mission, he said, was to "disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction ... [Saddam] is a dangerous bastard. For the sake of his own people and regional stability, he needs removing."
Asked if it turned out he did not have any such weapons, air marshal Burridge, replied: "Come on, trust me. None of us are suggesting he doesn't have them. He has chemical and biological weapons, that's for sure".