Speaking on the anniversary of the end of the Gulf War between Iran and Iraq, which Iraq won on points at best; Saddam proclaimed that his double survival in that war and Desert Storm proved he won. We question our victories if there are even a few loose ends and he claims just surviving self-inflicted pummelings as victory. Even with our high standards and his low ones, he is going down in defeat when we invade. I suppose one has to ask why one should even comment on his speech, but when a fair number of people seem to think he’s not so bad or a threat to us, one can’t let opportunities go by.
Let’s just take Saddam’s main, as far as I’m concerned, quote:
All empires and bearers of the coffin of evil, whenever they mobilized their evil against the Arab nation, or against the Muslim world, they were themselves buried in their own coffin, with their sick dreams and their arrogance and greed.
Let’s see, in 1980, Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to invade Shiite Islam Iran. To be fair, Iranians were committing terrorism against Iraqi targets, but Saddam’s goals were more than just punishing Iran for that. Saddam wanted Iraq to lead the Gulf, the Arab world, and the non-aligned movement. His glory, and Iraq’s (if he sees any difference), required that recognition. That should count as arrogance and possibly a sick dream, but the latter might be too judgmental. Let’s just count his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction as the sick dream part. He did use chemical weapons quite liberally against his Iranian Moslem enemy, and I don’t doubt he would have nuked the Iranians if he’d had that weapon in the 80s. So, let’s count this war as accounting for 1) mobilizing against the Muslim world; 2) arrogance; and 3) sick dreams.
In 1990, Saddam conquered Kuwait. Despite his current claim that an attack on one Arab state is an attack on the whole Arab world, this apparently did not apply to him. Let’s give him another check mark on the arrogance issue. Clearly, it was a mobilization against the Arab world, so we’ve filled in that box on Saddam’s score card of villainy. Since his invasion was basically about money, having decided it was better to just take over the bank than beg for cash, this is another instance of greed. Hauling off everything of value adds to this image of plundering a neighbor. The hundreds of still missing Kuwaitis and an American pilot who may be held somewhere in Iraq even to this day surely counts for sick. Another award-winning war decision for Saddam.
And today, as America focuses on Iraq and prepares to invade, Saddam gets religion and decides to pipe down, act nice, and pretend he is really a quite reasonable man ready to discuss all issues to settle this crisis peacefully. I’m tempted to simply call this arrogance, but it relies on the willingness of his neighbors, the Europeans, and the folks at Berkeley to eagerly swallow his new line. As he ignores the ceasefire terms of the Persian Gulf War, he siphons off money that should be buying food and medicine to build scores of ornate palaces/arms depots around the country while blaming America for the suffering of his people. Arrogance and greed right there.
So we’ve checked off all his boxes, and we’ve also seen his bloody debacles that resulted from his 1980 and 1990 invasions. Saddam is about to go 0-3 in inter-state war, and this is his last one. This time he dies in his bunker. I’ll even let him get buried in his own coffin.
I should mention that notwithstanding the assertion made in the Post article above, the Arab states did indeed help pay for the war with Iran, big time. Iraq couldn’t demobilize its military after that war and so was short of cash, but Arab refusal to pony up any more once the war was over is hardly grounds for invasion. Saddam proclaims he prefers “equitable dialogue" instead of war. Too late. We’re coming.
