You may be right but there would likely be a civil war with huge bloodshed, with the armed Shiites getting into power as a subset of Iran. Kurds likely to break away, inviting Turkey to attack, etc.
Letting Saddam stay in power while keeping a sword above his head starts to look smarter and smarter all the time. He kept all the factions in line. That said, the US and the UN would have to have kept Saddam's feet to the fire with the threat of military intervention and weapons inspections and an occasional slap in the face to keep him straight.
We used Saddam to keep the Russians at bay and the Iranians in line. We should have used him to keep Iraq free of terrorists, which he was doing by the way. He didn't trust the terrorists either. Then by keeping the pressure on him, allow a new government to emerge organically from within without the need to invade, kill 10,000 plus Iraqis, blow up the infrastructure, only to have rebuild it. And then since we wiped out the government we have to be the Water, Electric, police and fire departments till things get straightened out.
But somewhere in the calculation this administration should have been able to figure out that taking out Saddam would create a huge vacuum, which will try to be filled by the next madman, be it Kurd, Shia, Sunni or outside terrorist faction, or a combination. A likely combination will be a ruling Shia majority assisted by and supported by Iran. Won't that be sweet?
This administration hasn't taken the time to put together a plan. Their meddling in Iraq has not solved anything. They still don't have a plan.
Orca |
