michael97123 ...." Also this points out why this is different than NK. In the mideast, there are relgious and nationalist forces in play that will lead to use of these weapons, perhaps first in israel but also in other arab countries."....
Agreed, IMO. islam is the problem and it looks as though sadam is getting more religious all the time.
Saddam calls for holy war against Bush
By Nicolas Pelham in Baghdad
Published: March 5 2003
Saddam Hussein marked the Muslim new year on Tuesday with an appeal to Iraqis to join a jihad, or holy war, against the US, as weapons inspectors continued the hunt for the country's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
United Nations weapons inspectors said that Iraqis crushed three more of the banned al-Samoud 2 missiles, half the daily target Iraq says it aims to achieve. But Yashuhiro Ueki, spokesman for the inspectors in Baghdad, was relaxed about the slowdown. "It's a national holiday today," he said. "You can guess the pace has been slow."
After four days of bulldozing, Iraq has destroyed 19 of its 120 or so al-Samouds. The UN said a missile launcher for the system had also been destroyed.
The Iraqi leader made no mention of the missiles' destruction in his speech, which was broadcast on satellite television, interspersed with Koranic recitals, in an apparent attempt to mobilise wider Muslim sentiment against a US president he dubbed "the evil despot of the century".
As weapons inspectors monitored the missiles' destruction, Iraqi Shia Muslims in Baghdad munched sweetmeats, played with balloons and recited their supplications in the forecourt beneath the four gold-tipped minarets of the Kathimiya, the shrine of one of the Prophet Mohammed's descendants.
Families picnicking on patchwork cloths said celebrations were their way of coping with the fear of impending war. But the crowds were said to be less numerous than in previous years, and the mood more downcast. The mosques of Sunnis, who follow the orthodox rite that scorns visits to shrines, were empty.
The Iraqi president reiterated the theme of recent speeches, appealing to his people's devotion to sacrifice epitomised in the slaughter of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Hussein, in 680 AD. "You, the Iraqi people, will be victorious through your faith, and by choosing right against evil and jihad against the mercenaries and the aggressors," he said.
Mr Hussein has embarked on what he calls a hamla imaniya, or spiritual battle, since the Gulf war, in an attempt to bolster his religious appeal. He has diverted tens of millions of dollars to the reconstruction of the holy shrines damaged in the 1991 Shia rebellion, and embarked on the construction of mega-mosques, named Saddam, intended as the world's largest. Iraqi observers say the religious content of his homilies has also increased recently.
Religious leaders in Baghdad said they were also having to grapple with the theological difficulty of making a call to jihad during the first month of the year, Muharram. Since pre-Islamic times, the month has been considered a time of treaties, peace and a cessation of violence.
"We are obliged not to fight during Muharram," said Sheikh Wathiq Fuad al-Obeidi, dean of the recently restored Sunni theological seminary, al Gailani. "But if otherwise we die, then fight we must."
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