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Arab intellectuals will appeal for Sammy to depart...
About a dozen Arab intellectuals said they planned to publish an appeal in Arab newspapers later this week in an attempt to persuade Saddam to step down in return for asylum abroad and guarantees for his safety. And we all know how much Arab guarantees are worth... That idea was recently expounded in an open letter to Saddam by Ghassan Tueni, a former Lebanese statesman and publisher of Beirut's An Nahar daily. "The immediate resignation of Saddam, whose rule over three decades have been a nightmare for Iraq and the Arab world, is the only way around further violence," said a copy of the appeal obtained by Reuters on Thursday. If they'd said the same thing at, say, the ten year point in his bloody-handed autocracy the appeal would carry a bit more moral verve, wouldn't it? The Iranian newspaper said the United States, which is amassing troops and armour near Iraq, also preferred a non-violent solution. We'd be reasonably happy if he just dropped dead. But it's the successor state that's important... Hope the Bush team doesn't lose sight of that fact. Otherwise, we're going to have to go through all this again in ten years. Entekhab said the U.S. scheme for a post-Saddam government involved a federal system that would include the ruling Baath party. That's a bad move, too. It's kind of like post-Nazi Germany, only with the Nazis still in good standing... Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-01-03 |
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