nationalreview.com
OT: Letter from Saddam to President, 2009
Dear Madam President Clinton:
As you may have gathered by now, the nuclear device exploded over the Nevada desert today came
from the mighty arsenal of the Republic of Iraq. We sincerely hope that the device did not injure anyone;
its purpose was simply to show that Iraq has acquired a nuclear capability.
In fact, we are proud to say that we have manufactured many such weapons. Nearly a dozen of them
are now in place in major American cities. We certainly do not want to have to detonate them, and we
see no need to go that far, if you accede to several reasonable requests that essentially amount to a
permanent disengagement from the internal affairs of the Middle East:
1. Immediately end all sanctions against Iraq.
2. Permanently withdraw all American troops and military advisers from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and all
other Muslim countries, and agree not to become involved in any military action by one Middle Eastern
country against another.
3. Stop all governmental assistance, military and otherwise, to the Jewish Entity, and all trade by
American companies with it.
4. Extradite to Iraq the traitors, spies, and saboteurs that you are currently harboring as supposed
"dissidents" and "opposition leaders," as well as the blasphemer Salman Rushdie, who we believe is
currently visiting your country.
We recognize, of course, that your nuclear arsenal vastly exceeds ours, and that you have threatened
to attack any country that detonates nuclear bombs within your boundaries. Should you attack Iraq with
your nuclear bombs, you will doubtless be able to kill millions of innocent Iraqis, as well as probably killing
me.
But if you do so — or if you invade Iraq using conventional weapons, or assassinate me — then this will
only assure that my trusted agents will detonate, one by one, the bombs that are currently planted in
your cities. Because the bombs are located near ground level, their detonation will regrettably cause not
just immediate damage, but also a considerable amount of radioactive fallout. You, Madam President,
would then be responsible for the deaths of millions of your fellow citizens, for the damage done to your
allies (especially your Canadian allies) as some of the fallout settles in their territory, and for the deaths
of millions of innocent Iraqis.
Americans recognize that you would not be morally justified in killing innocent Iraqis through a retaliatory
attack. After all, your actions during your campaign in Afghanistan show that you do not take civilian
casualties lightly, even when they are incidental to attacks on military targets.
And of course such civilian deaths will only lead to a righteous desire in the Islamic world for further acts
of vengeance against Americans. As many of your own country's eminent thinkers pointed out when you
were debating a preemptive strike against Iraq in 2002, the last thing America needs is to create still
more people who want to harm it. Even your praiseworthy refusal to attempt any preemptive action
against Iraq shows your wise concern about preserving life.
Now perhaps you doubt that I will make good on my threat. After all, your foreign policy since 2002 has
rested on the assumption that if Iraq acquires nuclear weapons, it can be deterred from using them,
because its leader is rational. Perhaps you think that I will not detonate the weapons that I now control
on your soil, because that would be irrational on my part.
On the contrary; I am being quite rational here. I am in my seventies, and I have relatively little fear of
death. In fact, now that I have committed myself to this plan of action, I fear more the dishonor that I
would bring on myself if I retreated like a coward.
Trust me, I am deeply, deeply concerned for the possible suffering of my countrymen, but I proclaim that
all of them will happily run the risk of martyrdom for the greater glory of Allah and the Arab nation; and in
any event, I believe that this risk will not materialize, because I believe that my strategy will preserve
them from your retaliation.
And the upside of my gamble is that I will be able to achieve what many in the Arab world have long
dreamed about, and will thus glorify Allah and the Arab nation and bask myself in the reflected glory of
that deed, for now and for centuries to come. Saladin is still remembered nearly a thousand years after
his death; Hussein would be remembered for a thousand years alongside him. This is, I realize, a highly
risky strategy on my part, but I think that it's a calculated risk. And even if you think this is an irrational
plan, trust me at least that it is a sincere one.
In fact, I am counting on your rationality. Will you kill millions of your own people, and millions of others?
Or will you save their lives, and your own consciences, by acceding to our reasonable requests? I am
sure that you will find the answer easy, and that the United Nations, your European, Canadian, and Arab
allies, and your own citizens will breathe a sigh of relief when you give that answer. Choose peace,
Madam President, rather than a devastating war.
Sincerely Yours,
Saddam Hussein |
