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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: carranza2 who wrote (71761)	2/6/2003 12:34:20 PM
From: JohnM	Respond to of 281500

I have, and they are fatally flawed because they rely on the interpretation that Saddam has acted rationally in the past when he became aggressive. Pollack put this centerpiece of the argument to rest long ago. Not even worth discussing anymore, in my opinion. Ah, an open mind.

To: carranza2 who wrote (71761)	2/6/2003 3:31:40 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Carranza, I'd say Saddam has acted rationally. He has had great achievements. He is the undisputed boss. The whole world is watching him. He has enjoyed total power for decades now. He has seen off the USA once. He has enjoyed demonstrating his power in Iran and Kuwait. He is helping keep suicide bombing alive against Israel. [Pretty cool irony there if somewhat goulish - which itself is an apt word when I check the dictionary <An evil spirit or demon in Muslim folklore believed to plunder graves and feed on corpses.>]. Sure he has no doubt made mistakes and got results he didn't want. We all suffer that! Come in Biotelecosmictechdot.com bubble and bust. His sensory inputs seem just fine. It's the processing and conclusions so many of us dislike. When the goal is complete power and being the centre of the universe, his conclusions are actually excellent. He's getting quite old, so if all he ever achieves is what he's done to date, that's been a highly successful life. He's more famous than Andy Warhol. He's probably more famous than the Beatles now. Not to mention more popular than Jesus [in the area which matters to him anyway]. Misunderestimating opposition and misunderstanding them too is not a good idea. In fact, I'd call that irrational. Saddam is wide-awake, like a tiger according to one of his ex-wives [if they were married]. Never drunk. I'd say he is perhaps more rational than a lot of the rabid, foaming at the mouth religious zealots who are out to get him because he bought weapons of mass destruction from Nato countries to help in his fighting against Iran, which the USA put him up to in revenge for the hostage taking and overthrow of the Shah who was their good oil buddy. Saddam is plenty rational! Heck, he doesn't even use the typical Arab hyperbole such as "We will fry you in 1000 pots of oil for 100 nights after cutting off your hands and feet. You will suffer a 1000 lashes and will have to read the Quran from memory because your eyes will be fed to the fish. Then we will really get stuck in, Inshallah. Oh, Mohammed, peace be upon him of course, but NOT on the evil infidel, help us slay and torture our enemies with infinite pain and make them know that ... blah blah blah". Saddam is reasonably polite. Mqurice