Why Iraq can't be deterred

[Imran Siddiqui]

Israel will only try to invade Saddam, if it is feeling suicidal or if Sharon is still in office in a few years, which I doubt he will.

[Kropotkin]

Israel invade Iraq, how? Israel can't do much more than some random bombing of Iraq. They can hardly do much against the production of weapons of mass destruction if they exists or Saddam really wants them. Also, it's not that likely that Saddam will nuke Israel if he's not already in a state of war. Is Israel really interested to get more involved in the middle east beside their own all ready well known problem-areas?

I'm not speaking out for appeasement but for common sense. Saddam is a power hungry dictator but that does not make him into a insane maniac. It's all to common in situations like this to thinkof ones own side as rational and reasonable while the other side is seen as unpredictable and unstable. The real situation is somewhere in between for both sides I would think.

[Tolls]

"Only problem was he guessed wrong that the US wouldn't back him "

Though even then, he was working from the idea that April Glaspie had pointed to the US allowing him a free hand in solving the Kuwait/Iraq oilfield dispute.

He doesn't strike me as irrational or insane, which is the way he is being portrayed. Everything he has done has been based on maintaining his power...Iran was a threat through the possible expansion of fundamentalism and stirring up the Shiite population...Kuwait had been pinching oil and refusing to stop...in both cases he felt he had the backing of the US (not true in the second, but we all make mistakes). If the US had said "No" I suspect he would have backed down. (and I'm not blaming the US here...Kuwait was a diplomatic ****-up...but it was Saddam that chose to invade).

Once in Kuwait, and realising he'd fubarred he gambled that the coalition would come apart, and in order to facilitate this he tried to coax Israel into joining in the fight...

[Arrian]

*reads article*

*pukes*

People like this are shaping US policy.

-Arrian

[Ned]

Kropotkin, If Israel knew exactly where the bombs or uranium or processing plants were, they would confine themselves to bombs. However, Israel has shown that it will do anything and everything to preserve itself and its people. History has shown us that Israel will not tolerate a hostile Arab country having nuclear weapons. They will act, it is a virtual certainty.

[Kropotkin]

Yes if they knew exacly where but that would hardly be the cause would it? Besides, they wouldn't be able to stop the production of other weapons of mass destruction at all from that distance. Yes, they might bomb but they are not really in the position to get rid of the root of the problem at all. There's alot about their neighbours that Israel doesn't tolerate but it can't do much about a lot of it.

[Sirotnikov]

Not only he's CIA, he's a Jew too.

Thanks axi

Racism is long dead, right?

I mean, it is common knowledge that all jews think alike, right?

[Jaguar]

Originally posted by axi
See how propaganda works? First we depict our enemies as insane maniacs, then comes the "logical conclusion" that they can't be deterred, only exterminated. You boys have done that in two world wars and a few peripheral conflicts already.

Yes, that was a sad day when Hitler committed suicide. All our fault. Such a great man, but portrayed so badly in our history books. The winner writes the history of the war. Too bad the public never knew what an inspiring leader he truly was.

What the **** are you smoking?

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Saddam's insane because Bush&Co say he is.

It appears that if you repeat an assertion in a variety of media long enough, and to a wide enough audience, it becomes accepted as truth

[Drake Tungsten]

The article never claimed that Saddam was insane...

[Six Thousand Year Old Man]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The article never claimed that Saddam was insane...

True; however, other propaganda releases from the US government have taken that line, and at least 2 posters on this thread indicated they feel that Saddam is insane.

Which goes to my original point - that if the media says he's insane often enough, their audience will accept it as fact.

[Kepler]

The article says Saddam is cut off from reality and that may well be true. But the example -- an account of the Iraqi "miscalculation" re: Iranian response to the Kurds -- doesn't agree with accounts of the situation that I have read. Pollack has an agenda, so I tend not to trust his veracity.

But none of the propoganda the Bushies have manufactured addresses the central reality of the Middle East: you always, always must argue from strength. Reason is equated with weakness and only breeds further aggression. Everybody in the region operates with bullying and bravado.

So, although the Bushies are doing it for all the wrong reasons, they are actually right to try to appear as forceful, pugnacious, and unreasonable as possible. They need to act like they have dicks for brains. Of course, it helps immeasurably that they do have dicks for brains.

[Drake Tungsten]

Pollack has an agenda, so I tend not to trust his veracity.

What's Pollack's agenda? I don't see what sort of agenda a person who works at an independent think tank would have. And as a former CIA analyst, I would assume that he knows what he's talking about.

They need to act like they have dicks for brains. Of course, it helps immeasurably that they do have dicks for brains.

Dubya may be an idiot, but his foreign policy team may be the most intelligent one ever assembled. Only a fool would think that they have **** for brains.

[CyberGnu]

Eh, Drake, most of the 'independent' think tanks have an agenda... Independant just means they are not directly sponsored by a political party, IIUIC.

[Drake Tungsten]

Think tanks hire people who's political views match with theirs. That doesn't mean that the people they hire are somehow tainted with an "agenda". I'm relatively sure that Pollack's views are actually his views, not some sort of propaganda meant to push an unknown agenda.