Sadaam Hussein began the 1991 Gulf War with the world's fifth largest armed forces, fielding some 950,000 troops, over 5,000 tanks (and twice as many other armored vehicles), and almost 4,000 artillery pieces. By the war's end, his armed forces were militarily devastated (having been heavily defeated if not totally destroyed) and, just one year later, were estimated to number around 382,500.
Despite such prodigious losses, Saddam managed to stay in power, and made some headway in reconstituting his shattered military. As recently as 1996, for instance, the factory established to build the "Lion of Babylon" Main Battle Tank (as Iraq's domestic version of its most sophisticated tank - the Russian T-72, is designated), while producing few of the vehicles, was making enough spare parts to keep remaining Iraqi T-72s running.
Nonetheless, Iraq's Army, Air Force and Navy (the latter never a significant force), remain much smaller than their pre-Gulf War levels; a situation that has been compounded by UN sanctions; coalition air attacks in support of the post-war "no-fly" zones; and the periodic purges of Saddam himself, ever fearful that his armed forces might be tempted to stage a coup.
Today, the Iraqi armed forces number approximately 389,000.
Moreover, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), while half of Iraqi divisions are 8,000 strong (and in a "fair state of readiness") out of average authorized strengths of 10,000 men, at least half of the regular Army is at 70 percent or less of its authorized strength, with some infantry units badly undermanned and very dependent on conscripts. CSIS also notes that Republican Guard divisions average at least 80 percent of an authorized strength of 8,000-10,000, with brigades averaging the size of a large U.S. battalion of 2,500 men.
In addition, all Iraqi divisions (except those of....
