WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO . . .
THE REPUBLICAN GUARD
The nine divisions of the 125,000-strong Republican Guard were supposed to be Saddam's strategic reserve, his fearsome ace in the hole, the best-equipped and -trained of his soldiers. If the allies broke through fixed Iraqi defenses and the armored divisions backing them up, the Guard would pounce and drive the intruders back. When the allied invasion came, the Iraqi plan fell apart. Coalition forces broke through in several places along the Kuwaiti border and swept into Iraq far to the west. Without air reconnaissance, neither Baghdad nor the Guard's division commanders...