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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: JohnM who wrote (53188)10/19/2002 3:23:00 PM
From: carranza2  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
I find it unusual that the NYT critic did not mention another justification for invading Iraq which I'm not even sure Pollack makes i.e., the sheer lunacy in allowing Saddam or Uday to think, rightly or wrongly, that they might control the destinies of Western economies because nukes would permit Iraq to control the flow of a lot of Mideast oil.

Should Iraq end up with nukes, there is nothing to prevent it from going after Kuwait and even Saudi Arabia's oil fields if Saddam believes that we would never be the first users of atomic weapons and that we would never expose our troops to atomic warfare. Ergo, Saddam probably believes that armed with nukes, he can control ME oil fields because he can deter us from dislodging him from them. This is IMO the essence of his thinking.

And it is seriously flawed thinking since his use of nukes brings about the end of Iraq. However, as Pollack has pointed out, it is folly to think of Saddam as a brilliant strategist.

And that is the nub of the problem. Saddam is stupid and dangerous.

He's has to be replaced before he embarks on another Gulf War or Iraq-Iran war, both of which were fiascos. Saddam has never lost an opportunity to do a stupid thing on a grand scale.

Saddam doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. He is quite capable of believing and acting upon the notion that having nukes in his arsenal will give him control over the flow of Mideast oil and the resulting control over Western economic destinies which will enthrone him as the new Saladin.

He might be wrong, he might be right.

Either way, we can't let him act on such a notion. Better to take the medicine now than later, when the costs will surely be higher.
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