But I don't think that their popularity extends into the military. Hamzah, like Francona, though, doubts the likelihood of a successful coup by parties within the government. Even an officer would need collaborators. Immediately the word will go out. They will have a thousand guys who will tell him they will collaborate with him and immediately report to Saddam.
Double agents are the name of the game in Iraq now.
The Iraqi military would be more likely to step in if there is a prolonged power struggle or if things start falling apart throughout the country, the experts say. Prof. Baram forsees a scenario in which the two brothers struggle for power after Saddam. He has many party old-timers on his side because he found ways of forging alignments with them and he is the czar of the Iraqi media today. So, he is not going to give up easily. There was a recent sign that Uday still has aspirations for power.