Couldn't they at least wait for the film crews to get there?

Steve H. at Little Tiny Lies links to a Washington Times article linked by Misha of the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler (who got it from Halcyon Media. Phew.) to the effect that the Iraqis are already starting to defect.

Morale is low in the Iraqi army and many soldiers are preparing white flags of surrender, we are told by someone in northern Iraq who recently interviewed two defectors from Saddam Hussein's army.

One was a captain who defected from the 5th Mechanized Division of the 1st Corps, based near the northern city of Kirkuk. The captain told our informant that the heavy division was only 35 percent combat-effective. The captain said morale was so low that younger soldiers are speaking openly about surrendering - before the first shot has been fired.

A second soldier, a senior noncommissioned officer, defected from the same division's 34th Brigade, based south of the northern city of Mosul.

This soldier said that of the 28 tanks in his care, only six were working. The others were broken down or otherwise in need of repair.

"He said the whole division was at about 25 percent effectiveness and most soldiers were hiding their white flags," said our source, who spoke recently to both defectors.

I suspect this is just going to ruin George Clooney's day when he hears about it.