Category: War
Nature versus nurture. It’s a debate as old as psychology. Are we what we are because of our genes, because of our environment, or some mysterious combination? Countless knowledgeable people have devoted their professional lives to pondering that simple question.
Arthur Guyton was born in 1919 in Oxford, Mississippi. His father was an ENT physician, and his mother was a physicist. Guyton was in his surgical residency when he was stricken with polio. Unable to perform surgery, Guyton devoted his extraordinary mind to the deep things of medicine.
Table of contents
We lack the space to catalog that extraordinary guy’s accomplishments. In addition to devising the world’s first joystick-controlled wheelchair, the first motorized patient hoist, and a series of advanced orthotic braces, Guyton singlehandedly penned the standard textbook of medical physiology used by every reputable medical school on the planet. I was blessed to have him autograph my copy. Dr. and Mrs. Guyton had ten children, every last one of whom went on to become respected physicians in their own right. Theirs was a truly amazing family.
On 15 June 2013, 16-year-old Ethan Crouch killed four people while driving with a restricted license under the influence of drugs and alcohol. At his trial for intoxicated manslaughter, Crouch’s attorneys actually argued that he deserved rehab rather than prison because he suffered from “affluenza.” They reasoned that the kid had never been taught any limits, so it wasn’t his fault that he plowed his dad’s late-model Ford F-350 into a crowd. Crouch eventually fled to Mexico with his wealthy facilitating mother but was apprehended. Nature versus nurture—it’s indeed a murky question.
The Archetypes
Uday and Qusay Hussein were the sons of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Uday, the elder, was seen as Saddam’s heir apparent until he was badly injured in an assassination attempt. Both boys were born in Baghdad to Saddam’s wife/first cousin Sajida Talfah while the patriarch was in prison. The couple also had three daughters. Interestingly, in addition to his well-publicized forays into megalomania, Saddam also anonymously penned a best-selling romance novel titled “Zabibah and the King.”
Uday and Qusay were both crazy, but they were two different flavors of crazy. Qusay was the more cerebral of the two. He married Maher Abd al-Rashid and fathered four children. Qusay killed methodically, institutionally, and, most typically, in the shadows. Thousands of political prisoners were murdered on his orders simply to free up space in Iraqi jails. By contrast, Uday was a much more flamboyant madman.
Uday Hussein was a true old-school psychopath. He derived personal joy from other people’s suffering. Uday was a serial rapist who was granted unfettered institutional power. His henchmen roamed the streets of Baghdad, kidnapping attractive young women for his personal use.
Uday spent three days in medical school before dropping out. He then obtained a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a doctorate in political science. However, there were rumors that his coursework was actually done by others in exchange for gifts, political favors, and the threat of violent, gory death. One of his fellow students described him thusly, “He was really smart, probably smarter than his father—but he was crazy.”
In addition to sundry other duties, Uday was put in charge of the Iraqi Olympic teams. He would torture the athletes if they did not perform to his standards. Latif Yahia, Uday’s body double, later said, “The word that defines him is sadistic. I think Saddam Hussein was more human than Uday. The Olympic Committee was not a sports center, it was Uday’s world.”
Uday reportedly had a policy wherein he never had sex with a woman more than three times. Once he was done, he frequently had his subjects murdered and their bodies disposed of. When he was unable to be present for a victim’s torture, he often called in so he could listen to their screams over the phone.
The veracity of this story has been disputed. However, it was widely reported in 2003 that the man even ordered an industrial plastic shredder to be shipped to Iraq. He purportedly used the device to kill his enemies by gradually lowering them into the machine feet-first. In short, Uday and Qusay really desperately needed killing.
Assassination Attempts
You cannot treat people the way the Hussein boys did without making more than your share of serious enemies. Additionally, Saddam Hussein was Sunni, while the nation he ruled was majority Shia. This, combined with Saddam’s legendarily heavy-handed dictatorship, was the recipe for wet work.
As the quieter of the two psycho brothers, Qusay’s assassination attempt was the milder event. Members of the Iraqi National Congress opened fire on his motorcade on 1 August 2002. Qusay incurred a minor bullet wound to the arm but was otherwise unhurt.
Uday’s event was much more dramatic. He fell prey to his own depraved predictability. Every Tuesday around 7 pm, Uday would cruise around the Mansour district in Baghdad in his late-model Porsche sports car looking for fresh women to rape. Members of the Shia Shaaban resistance movement surveilled the area for three months, gathering intelligence before the hit. When the time was right, a group of assassins opened up, firing a total of fifty rounds at his vehicle. Seventeen actually connected.
The resulting purge resulted in a fairly predictable bloodbath. Countless political opponents, both real and imagined, were tortured and killed. As for Uday, after several surgical procedures, Iraqi physicians removed all but two rounds. However, the butcher had suffered significant spinal cord damage. While he was originally rumored to have been paralyzed, he eventually did recover well enough to be able to walk, albeit with a pronounced limp.
Uday’s extensive injuries also purportedly rendered him impotent. As you might imagine, for a prolific recreational rapist, that represented an undeniable blow to his pride. He subsequently had the secret police spread spurious stories about his extraordinary sexual prowess.
Operation Tapeworm
After the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, hunting down the major players in the Hussein government became the top priority. Coalition forces famously produced a deck of playing cards containing the most infamous personalities. Saddam was the ace of spades. Qusay and Uday were the aces of hearts and clubs, respectively. Coalition forces placed a combined bounty of $30 million on the two reprobates. They christened the mission to unalive these two scumbags Operation Tapeworm.
$30 million is a lot of money. That’s enough cash to allow a man to start afresh somewhere. Amidst the war-torn maelstrom of defeated Iraq, the means to set one’s family up on a metaphorical island somewhere was enough to raise a few eyebrows. A pair of those eyebrows belonged to one Nawaf al-Zaidan.
Nawaf al-Zaidan was a successful businessman and member of the Hussein inner circle of trusted confidantes. When Uday and Qusay needed a place to hide out, they pinged good old Uncle Nawaf. Uday, Qusay, Qusay’s 14-year-old son, Mustafa, and their bodyguard Abdul-Samad had been quietly holed up in Nawaf’s Mosul mansion for about three weeks when Nawaf left the compound on some pretense with his son. The rest of the al-Zaidan family had gone out for breakfast earlier.
Al-Zaidan reported to a nearby 101st Airborne base and explained that the Hussein boys were chilling at his crib. Despite being justifiably terrified–keep in mind that these were the same two fun-loving kids who supposedly maintained their own recreational plastic shredder–he offered physical details that corroborated his story. At 1000 on 22 July 2003, eight Delta Force operators, along with some forty 101st grunts, decided to run down the lead.
Monster Killing 101
The 101st infantrymen established an airtight cordon, and the D-boys gave the Hussein brothers a shout using a bullhorn. When they got no response, the Delta shooters breached the front door for a look-see. They were greeted by sleeting AK-47 fire that wounded three of the assaulters. As the entry team egressed, the Americans took fire from the upper story of the house that wounded a fourth US operator. That’s when these American heroes did what they do best.
In the actual military world, there’s just no such thing as overkill. Fairness and parity of firepower don’t mean bupkis if it is your hide on the line. The surrounding Screaming Eagles opened up with M2 Browning .50-caliber machine guns, AT4 antitank rockets, and Mk 19 automatic grenade launchers to systematically pulverize the structure. Uday and Qusay fought back, but this was turning into quite the big show. Everybody wanted a piece of it. In short order, a further 200 American grunts showed up ready to party. They brought along a handful of OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed helicopters and several Humvee-mounted TOW launchers. The American people were about to get their money’s worth on some of that astronomical defense budget.
Doing the Deed
Around 1300 hours, some three hours after the Delta team first initiated their breach, the 101st grunts pumped ten BGM-71 TOW antitank missiles into the house. Support weapons and the Kiowa Warriors added to the carnage. Twenty minutes later, an American assault team moved into the rubble to check things out.
Uday and Qusay were blown to smithereens. 14-year-old Mustafa had barricaded himself in what was left of a bedroom with a Kalashnikov. When approached by US forces, the boy unlimbered his rifle. The American shooters cut him down.
The Rest of the Story
US troops recovered what was left of the four Iraqis and verified their identities via dental records and DNA assays. Uday and Qusay had grown their beards long in an effort to alter their appearance. Also, Uday had shaved his head. Uday, Qusay, and Mustafa were buried alongside each other in a cemetery in Tikrit.
Saddam, for his part, took the news with stoicism. Not that it mattered. Five months later, Delta operators dragged the disheveled despot out of a hole in the ground outside a farmhouse in ad-Dawr near Tikrit.
He was armed with a selective fire Glock 18C that was later presented to President Bush as a war trophy. Three years later, the 69-year-old dictator kept his date with the hangman at Camp Justice in Baghdad.
Nawaf al-Zaidan’s home was completely destroyed in the operation. However, don’t be too torn up about that. He got the $30 million he was promised by Coalition authorities for ratting out the Hussein boys. Al-Zaidan subsequently disappeared with his wife Mohassin, his 18-year-old son Shalan, and his four daughters.
As part of the agreement, al-Zaidan and his family were covertly relocated to the US. After a purported one-year training period on a US military base, wherein the family learned English and were schooled in the rudiments of wealth management, they were allowed to move anywhere in the States they wished.
All seven members of the family were given Green Cards with the option of applying for full citizenship five years later. I checked Google and found no reference to where they ended up. They could be living right down the road from any of us.
Rocroi, the last Tercio, 1643 – Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau
In the deep woods of Chickamauga Creek, wary Union and Confederate soldiers thrashed the the under brush seeking a confrontation to the death.
Catoosa County and Walker County, GA | Sep 18 – 20, 1863
The Confederate army secured a decisive victory at Chickamauga but lost 20 percent of its force in battle. After two days of fierce fighting, the Rebels broke through Union lines and forced the Federals into a siege at Chattanooga.
How it ended
Confederate victory. At the end of a summer that had seen disastrous Confederate losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the triumph of the Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga was a well-timed turn-around for the Confederates, but it came at a great cost. Chickamauga was the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War, ranking only behind Gettysburg, and was by far the deadliest battle in the Western Theater.
In context
The small city of Chattanooga, with 2,500 inhabitants, lay on the banks of the Tennessee River where it cut through the Appalachian Mountains. It was the crossroads for four major railroads. President Abraham Lincoln knew that if his army could capture Chattanooga, vital Confederate supply lines would be severed, and the war would be closer to an end.
In the summer of 1863, the Confederate army was reeling from a string of losses in the Western Theater, while the success of the Tullahoma Campaign bolstered the confidence of Union Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans. Targeting Chattanooga, Rosecrans outmaneuvered the Rebel army and forced Confederate general Braxton Bragg to relinquish control of the critical transportation hub without a fight.
Rosecrans assumed that Bragg’s demoralized army would retreat further south into Rome, Georgia. He divided his army into three corps and scattered them throughout Tennessee and Georgia. But Rosecrans made a mistake—Bragg had in fact concentrated his men at LaFayette, Georgia, where he was expecting reinforcements and was close to a vulnerable corps of Rosecrans’s army. When Bragg’s troops crossed Chickamauga Creek, the Federals had a fight on their hands.
Although Bragg’s original plan was the destruction of the Army of the Cumberland and the recapture of Chattanooga, the results of two days of bitter fighting at Chickamauga stalled him. He decided to occupy the heights surrounding Chattanooga and lay siege to the city instead. Just two months later, the reinforced Federals drove the Army of Tennessee from their positions around Chattanooga, permanently securing Northern control of the city. With that loss, the Southern victory at Chickamauga was turned into a strategic defeat.
From his position in LaFayette, Georgia, Bragg follows the Union army north, skirmishing with them at Davis’s Cross Roads. By September 17, Bragg’s troops are reinforced with Virginia divisions under Gen. John Bell Hood and a Mississippi division under Brig. Gen. Bushrod Johnson. It is the first transport of Confederate troops from one theater to another to achieve numerical superiority.
On the morning of the September 18, with renewed confidence that Chattanooga could pass once again into Confederate hands, Bragg marches his army to the west bank of Chickamauga Creek, hoping to wedge his troops between Chattanooga and the Federal army.
UNION
CONFEDERATE
FORCES ENGAGED
125,000
UNION
60,000
60,000
CONFED.
65,000
65,000
September 18. Bragg hopes that his advance will be a surprise. Rosecrans, however, observes the Confederates marching in the morning and anticipates Bragg’s plan. By the time Bragg’s army crosses the creek, Union reinforcements are in place. Bragg’s infantry skirmishes with Federal infantry and mounted infantry armed with Spencer repeating rifles.
September 19. The Battle of Chickamauga begins in earnest shortly after dawn. Throughout the day Bragg’s men gain ground but cannot break the extended Union line despite a series of aggressive attacks. Confederate luck changes when, at 11:00 p.m., Gen. James Longstreet’s divisions arrive at Chickamauga. The Confederates now outnumber the Federals. Bragg divides his forces into two wings. Longstreet commands the left; Lt. Gen. Leonidas K. Polk takes charge of Confederate troops on the right.
September 20. The battle resumes at 9:30 a.m., with coordinated Confederate attacks on the Union left flank. About an hour later, Rosecrans, believing a gap exists in his line, orders Brig. Gen. Thomas Wood’s division to fill it. Wood, however, knows that the order is a mistake; no such gap exists in the Federal line, and moving his division would open a large swath in the Union position.
However, Wood who already been berated twice in the campaign for not promptly following orders, immediately moves, creating a division-wide hole in the Union line. This is the chance the Confederates need. Longstreet masses a striking force, led by Gen. Hood, of eight brigades divided into three lines. Longstreet’s men hammer through the gap that Wood had created, and Union resistance at the southern end of the battlefield evaporates as Federal troops, including Rosecrans himself, are pushed off the field.
Major General George Thomas, in a move that would earn him the name “The Rock of Chickamauga,” takes command and begins consolidating the scattered Union forces on Horseshoe Ridge and Snodgrass Hill. He and his men form a defensive position, and although Confederates continue to assault and press to within feet of the Union line, the Federals hold firm. Thomas withdraws as darkness falls.
UNION
16,170
1,657 killed
9,756 wounded
4,757 missing & captured
ESTIMATED CASUALTIES
34,624
UNION
16,170
16,170
CONFED.
18,454
18,454
CONFEDERATE
18,454
2,312 killed
14,674 wounded
1,468 missing & captured
Thomas urges Rosecrans to lead the army in an attack the next day, but the general rejects the idea and remains in Chattanooga. Bragg’s victorious army occupies the heights surrounding Chattanooga, blocking Federal supply lines, but does not pursue Rosecrans.
Ten Confederate generals are killed or wounded in the battle, and the fatalities among Bragg’s junior officers are great. With more than 16,000 Union and 18,000 Confederate casualties, Chickamauga reaches the highest losses of any battle in the Western Theater. While the Confederates drive Rosecrans from the field, they do not succeed in executing Bragg’s goals of destroying Rosecrans’s army or reoccupying Chattanooga.
No matter what, an attacker would be facing two lines of men shooting arrows or guns at them! Grumpy
