| Submit your comments on this article |
| Iraq |
| VDH : Saddam in 2005! |
| 2005-10-02 |
| Uchronia! I love uchronia! Just imagine a different Iraq⊠by Victor Davis Hanson Saddam promises more bounties for suicide bombers in Rather interview In a much publicized second interview with CBSâs Dan Rather, Iraqiâs President Saddam Hussein insisted that continual American pressure had little effect. âLook at Afghanistan. Here it is almost October 2005, and America is still fighting the Taliban, so I donât think they will dare come to our Iraq. But we are ready to be martyred nonetheless.â The Iraqi president who was hosting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas also denied rumors that Iraqi agents had attempted to assassinate former President Bill Clinton. On recent disclosures of a plot against him, President Clinton left nearby Kuwait, where he had lectured his hosts on the dangers of WMD proliferation in Iraq. Among the more tense moments of the Rather interview was Saddamâs insistence that Iranâs nuclear program demanded an âArab response.â The Iraqi leader also promised to increase his bounties to suicide bombers on the West Bank to $40,000 per family, and planned to expand the program to include martyrs who joined the Taliban resistance. CBSâs Rather grimaced, âI guess that $70-a-barrel oil give you a pretty wide berth, Mr. President.â Terrorists in Baghdad? In response to Iraqâs insistence that U.N. inspectors would not be allowed back in, and rumors that several terrorists were residing in Baghdad, Secretary of State Rice issued a call for a continuance of the controversial no-fly zones and the U.N. embargo. âWe cannot relent; the moment we do there will be a holocaust in Kurdistan. We are in a war against terror. It is bad enough that we know Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas reside in Baghdad, but Saddam is also openly harboring Abdul Rahman Yasin and Ahmed Hikmat Shakir who were connected to the plot in 1993 to blow up the World Trade Center and other anti-American terrorism. This is intolerable after 9/11. Now we find out that this al Qaeda leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who fled our forces in Afghanistan is also with Saddam. And al Qaedaâs affiliated Ansar al-Islam is openly operating in Kurdistan with Saddamâs approval.â No-fly zone weariness Military officials reacted to Sec. Riceâs warnings with some skepticism. An unnamed Air Force general added, âHoly Cow, we are up to a half-million of these sorties, going on 15 years now. At some point, we have to ask whether or not it is worth trying to take away 2/3s of the guyâs air space. When does it all end?â Retired Gen. Anthony Zinni who oversaw Operation Desert Fox seven years ago on Saddamâs weaponsâ installations, warned, âWe have no idea what he had, what we hit, what is left. As I said earlier, after the 1998 raid we took out 100 targets, killed maybe 2,000 Iraqis, and struck 85 percent of the WMD operations, but who knows whatâs there now? RTWT at the link. Hanson's on a roll here. |
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |