Bombs Meant to Ruin Iraqis’ Sleep, Lower Morale

If constant bombing doesn’t wipe out Iraq’s crack Republican Guard, it may at least keep the troops awake and turn them into a mob of exhausted men lusting more for slumber than for war.

Some allied military officials said using sleeplessness as a weapon is one reason bombs are showering on the troops almost continually, day and night, hour upon hour.

Officials said it is difficult to kill troops who are scattered and well protected in bunkers. But the allies are determined that even if the Iraqis run and hide, they’re not going to sleep.

“The attacks on the Republican Guard . . . are designed basically to lower his morale and to ensure that when he eventually is forced out of his well-dug-in positions . . . that he’s in the (worst) possible condition, rather than the best, to take on the fight,” British Group Capt. Niall Irving said at a news briefing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“That’s what we’re doing by this continual bombardment.”

The purpose of the bombing, said Irving, is not just death for the Iraqi troops. Rather, it’s “like keeping them awake all night, night after night. . . . It’s morale. It’s keeping him awake.”

Thousands of tons of explosives are going off daily among the Iraqis--bombs from B-52, F-15 and F-16 warplanes and shells from artillery and from battleships offshore in the Persian Gulf. It continues, relentlessly, hour after hour, almost without a break.

The rumbling of the ground and the constant threat of death from the sky is almost certainly keeping the Iraqis awake, turning sleep deprivation into a weapon, researchers said.

“There is no doubt that it can be a very effective weapon, psychologically and physiologically, if you can pull it off,” said Dave Dinges, an expert on sleep deprivation at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “The hard part is pulling it off--really sleep-depriving an opposing force.”

Dinges said it is very difficult to determine just how well an enemy army can adapt to events, even to bombing. Many troops, he said, can “snack” on sleep--take small naps--and remain effective. But the sleep debt eventually lowers the will and the ability to fight, he said.

“Sleep is a fundamental drive, like eating and staying warm,” said Dinges. “It’s one of the basic needs. The more it is deprived and disrupted, the more demoralized your troops get.”