
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991                   TAG: 9103020347
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

OFFICERS OF IRAQI DISDAINED

The meeting between Iraqi and allied commanders will be "coldly correct," given the contempt many U.S. military leaders are known to have for the Iraqi officer corps, Pentagon officers said.

"These guys bugged out of the battlefield in their private cars," one senior military commander said Friday. "They failed to respect the military's code of honor."

Top U.S. military officers, schooled in the history and protocol of the battlefield, are saying privately they are shocked at a lack of concern their Iraqi counterparts had for the average foot soldier.

Such deportment runs counter to Rule No. 1 drilled into every American officer: Care for your men.

Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf has made clear the disdain he feels for Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, who has appeared so often on Iraqi television in full military dress.

Given that attitude at the top - and feelings from the battlefield - no one expects touching post-battle moments at Sunday's meeting.

"There will be nothing other than a coldly correct attitude" on the part of the allied commanders, one senior officer predicted, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

"The Iraqis earned nothing more than that."

Based on intelligence reports, the allied commanders will know exactly who the officers are that show up for the meeting "and what their position in the pecking order is," a senior Pentagon analyst said.

"We will know whether they have the authority to speak. And if they don't negotiate properly, well, then all the bets will be off."

Allied commanders are expected to demand the immediate release of war prisoners and Kuwaiti hostages and maps detailing the location of land and sea mines, among other things.

If the Iraqis do come ready to deal, the talks could drag on for some time, the officers said.

Several senior military officers from several services, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said reports from U.S. commanders in the field indicated very few Iraqi officers were being found among the men they once commanded.

"It's amazing - we think they just scooted out of there, even before some of the major battles had begun," one senior Army officer said.

But at the Pentagon, the director of intelligence for the Joint Staff, Rear Adm. Mike McConnell, said he could not confirm the report.

by CNB