Look, he's got weapons somewhere. He isn't a complete fool. He has enemies everywhere, on his borders, in his region, within his borders (among "his own people," can you imagine that?!<g>), all over the world. But it's a confusing world. His enemies also support him, or at least have supported him in various ways over the years. Anyone who has remained in power as long as he has has got to have weapons. Unarmed prophets are put to death. Good arms make good laws. And the wise prince speaks of nothing but peace, and thinks of nothing but war. All Machiavellian maxims taken out of The Prince. All are known either viscerally or intellectually to any dictator that rules for more than a few years.
But does the fact--let's take it for fact for the moment--that he has weapons--even some WMDs, though with limited means of delivery--mean that war is the right option? Does it mean that he would use those weapons if not cornered, as he is being cornered now? Even if he is sadistic--and I am willing to believe some of the stories I've read even if some of them were totally concocted, and who know, all of them may have been!--he has not been shown to be a total loon, to be suicidal. He has been in power for a long time, surrounded by both internal and external enemies. He's had plenty of opportunity to commit suicide by stupidity if he wanted to. He is, on the one hand, a caricature of an old-fashioned tyrant, but on the other, he has the survival instincts of that old-fashioned tyrant. It's a shame that Tariq Aziz couldn't be a Plato to his Dionysos, and advise him in a fruitful way so that he could actually enjoy being a tyrant in his old age.
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