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| Iraq |
| Soddy press suggest Sammy kill himself... |
| 2003-02-16 |
| From MEMRI... Under the heading "Abdication in Lieu of War," Ms. Huda al-Husseini, a columnist for the London-based Saudi paper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, deplores Saddam's talk of yet another "victorious" war and concludes that Saddam's resignation is preferable to any war. Do it for The Children™. In another London-based Saudi daily, Al-Hayat columnist Abd Al-Wahab Badr-Khan writes under the title "Scenario for Abdication" that Saddam is preparing himself for a second "Mother of All Battles." Having lost the first one, Saddam continues to believe it was a victory that allowed him to stay in power. Badr-Khan argues that for all practical purposes the regime has collapsed and all of Saddam's calculations have proven wrong. The only way to save the country from total disaster is for Saddam to abdicate. The first columnist who raised the possibility that Saddam might be forced into asylum was Al-Hayat's senior columnist Jihad al-Khazen many months earlier. Do it because you're a disaster with feet. In an editorial titled "The Anticipated Historic Decision," the Saudi daily Okaz suggests that in order for Iraq and its people to avoid the tragedies and disasters of war it would be wise for the Iraqi president "to take a courageous, responsible and historic" decision that would give priority to the future of his country and people over the future of a regime that it is difficult to defend or to sustain. Do it for the suffering Iraqi Pee-pul™. Quoting King Abdallah of Jordan that only a miracle can save the area from war, Irfan Nidham Al-Din writes in Al-Hayat about dreaming that Saddam and the central figures of his regime would abdicate and hand over power to a transitional team that would resolve the pending issues of weapons of mass destruction. Do it for your neighbors... In a highly unusual step, a number of Arab intellectuals have circulated a petition calling on Saddam to abdicate. To avoid a catastrophe in the Middle East, the petitioners: "Call upon public opinion in the Arab world to exercise pressure for the dismissal from power of Saddam Hussein and his close aides in Iraq in order to avoid a war that threatens with catastrophe the peoples of the region. [They also call] for the rule of democracy in Baghdad and for the stationing across Iraq of human rights monitors from the United Nations and the Arab League to oversee the peaceful transition of power." Do it for the Arab Street™. All these exhortations pale in comparison with an article in the Saudi daily al-Jazeera. After analyzing the Saudi Kingdom's four options with regard to the war on Iraq, D. Ali bin Shuwail al-Qarni, Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Society for Information and Communications and Associate Professor for Information at King Sa'ud University, calls on Saddam to commit suicide: "As far as Iraq is concerned, the change [in regime] is inevitably coming with or without a war. But what will be the destiny of Saddam Hussein? Will His Highness abdicate his authority to prevent bloodshed and save the vital interests of Iraq as well the region's interests?"Just do it. If you kill yourself, we can all move on. Except for you, of course. Under the title "The Lesser of Two Evils" Al-Hayat's columnist Daoud Al-Shiryan laments the dilemma forced upon the Iraqi people by Saddam. They have to choose between supporting America which would save them from "a despotic and authoritarian regime" that has wasted the national wealth and "practiced a historically unprecedented political savagery," or they can stay and fight a lost battle in the trenches of Saddam. Thought he said it was a choice? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #3 Suicide/abdication under what terms? Seriously, would he simply be replaced by the next-in-line Baathist psychopath? That isn't a solution. I can only see this as a satisfactory outcome if quickly followed by an agreed-to occupation by Allied forces. Besides, don't we need to seize Saddam's files to find out where the WMD are hidden, prosecute war criminals, get the facts on Weasel perfidy, etc? |
| Posted by: Kirk 2003-02-16 23:03:42 |
| #2 "It was an obvious suicide - he shot himself in the back of the head six times." |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-02-16 21:15:28 |
| #1 Actually, abdication or suicide might be a bad idea. The more I think about it, a US occupation of Iraq might be a geopolitical "good thing". It be like a bucket of cold water in the face for a lot of regimes not only in the area but around the world as well.Properly leveraged, we could get a lot done in the area of manure shoveling. |
| Posted by: Hungry Valley 2003-02-16 13:01:48 |