Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[jbennett53]

brightness, The real motivation right now for many to strengthen their militaries is to defend themselves from the US as well as hostile neighbors. GW may be correct in his desire to take out Saddam. Personally I think that keeping him where he is and lifting the sanctions with inspections is the proper course. When we go into Baghdad I expect resistance to quickly collapse. What I worry about at that point is Saddam using a scorched earth policy, as he did in Kuwait, which could result in the deaths of several thousand Americans and the contamination of many others not to mention catastrophe for the civilian population. I remember the folks who rose up at the end of the Gulf War when urged by GHWB. If they see Bahgdad in "flames" I fear they will rise up and commit an absolute bloodbath against any supporters of Saddam. With possibly 2 million Arabs dead I expect much anger to ensue in the Muslim world and we might not like the consequences. In sum it feels like a big game of chess and GW is playing right into OBL's trap.