The form of the equations for the backscattered fields used in the analysis of Thorsos and Winebrenner (Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 17, 107--17, 121, 1991) and that of Bahar (Journal of Geophysical Research, 96, 17, 123--17, 131, 1991) in the limit as surface heights and slopes become small (SP limit) is examined. Both of these analyses start from the expression for the total full-wave scattered field as given by Bahar (IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, AP-28, 11--21, 1989). In his analysis, Bahar subtracts from this total field a so-called diffraction field that he claims is important only near the specular direction. If this claim were correct, then such a subtraction should have little effect on the computed cross section for scattering directions away from the specular direction. In the SP limit, however, we show that Bahar's diffraction field contributes to the backscatter cross section in all directions. The subtraction of the diffraction field exactly cancels the second-order moments responsible for the difference between the limiting cross sections found in the two analyses. It is because of this subtraction that Bahar is able to show agreement with the SP limit. Furthermore, we find that Bahar's expression does not yield the correct diffusely scattered field from a tilted planar surface or from a smooth cosine surface with zero mean slope. The failure of Bahar's expression for these simple cases indicates to us that even though it does reduce to the proper SP limit, it is not a correct general expression for the diffusely scattered, horizontally polarized field backscattered from a perfectly conducting, one-dimensionally rough surface as is claimed in his article. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1993