Do we need a full blown war with Iraq? Why can’t the US with its intelligence, locate Saddam Hussein’s location; then, stage a coup de main with a large number of special forces to contain him? With Hussein dead or captured, why do we need to blow up the rest of Iraq particularly if the people for the most part seemed willing to accept the change? How many of Hussein’s special troops would be willing to fight to death if he was captured or dead? From what I’ve seen on the news it seems many in Iraq privately hope for his departure. It seems a shame that we have to literally blow up the entire country (spending tens of billions doing it), kill probably tens of thousands, then after we either kill or capture Hussein, we will spend tens (hundreds?) of billions of dollars fixing what we just blew up. It’s safe to say we can rule out having Hussein voluntarily step down. So short of a full-blown war, is there any other clever stratagem or special coup that could possibly work?
Well, we could just nuke the general area we determine he’s in but even thats hard. German intelligence has determined that Saddam hasnt been seen in public for over 4 years now based on scans of the faces that have been reportedly been Hussien. They were decoys.
His body guards are sometimes rousted in the middle of the night by masked gunman and asked if they will join the coup. If they say yes, they are shot on sight for treason. nifty performance evaluation, eh?
All his palaces prepare meals as if he was going to be there, whether he will of not and he has dozens of them. Only saddam knows which palace he will be in and he doesnt stay there long.
His food tasters are members of his own family and the eldest son of his head chef. Nice guy.
To meet with this guy, you have to be scanned and stripped searched …several times. Your clothes are scanned and laundered. You are blindfolded and led around for hours and IF you get to where he is (he could change his mind and not meet with you) you are serached again and you have to wash your hands with 3 kinds of disinfectant…and you thought Howard Hughes was wacko.
This man has killed entire political cabinets, members of his immediate family, personal guards and generals and Allah knows how many civilians. Saddam knows how to stay in power. If you can think of any way to beat that security system, let the CIA know. They’ll be glad to find a way.
If Saddam hasn’t been seen in public for 4 years, that raises the interesting question of whether the fascade of decoys could continue even after his death, and nobody (except an inner circle of “puppeteers”) be the wiser.
Aside from that, just assassinating Saddam would not guarantee anything. It isn’t like he doesn’t have a contingency plan for running Iraq if he is killed - the result of it would probably be a quick and brutal suppression of rebel forces by the Republican Guard.
In order to reliably oust Saddam and change the government, we need to destroy the state, not destroy Saddam.
I just heard on the radio today that the Saudi are suggesting that the generals in Iraq be given amnesty IF they overthrow Saddam before the onset of hostilities. That actually sounds pretty good to me, so long as they also agree to become a more reasonable society regarding treatment of their citizens and neighbors.
Perhaps we will hear more about this in the near future. Sounds better than a full blown war to me.
Paul, excellent article from the Atlantic, from May 2002.
“Fresh food is flown in for him twice a week—lobster, shrimp, and fish, lots of lean meat, plenty of dairy products. The shipments are sent first to his nuclear scientists, who x-ray them and test them for radiation and poison. The food is then prepared for him by European-trained chefs, who work under the supervision of al Himaya, Saddam’s personal bodyguards. Each of his more than twenty palaces is fully staffed, and three meals a day are cooked for him at every one; security demands that palaces from which he is absent perform an elaborate pantomime each day, as if he were in residence.”
and so on. The account of the general’s meeting Saddam is fascinating too.