Fourth, crucial military resources are redirected from the regular armed forces to
the coup-proofing portion of the security apparatus. Though these units will often
be well trained and well equipped, leaders are unlikely to deploy these soldiers away
from the capital except for the gravest of circumstances. Quinlivan (1999, 145), for
example, noted Hussein’s reluctance to deploy Iraq’s Republican Guard despite the
Popular Army having ‘‘frequently collapsed’’ in combat. Mobutu even refused to
deploy his own coup-proofing apparatus beyond the capital during the Shaba
conflicts and against the westward march of Democratic Alliance for the Liberation
of the Congo.