[popdonnelly]

Oh, this is a very big story. You mean we could have saved ourselves a lot of bloodshed? Are Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink going to picket the Arab League's offices. Don't answer, it's just a rhetorical question.

[Brett66]

Good move, it's better to see him tried for his crimes in Iraq than living in Chateau in France off of his misbegotten billions.

[saganite]

Whoa! You think they wanted the invasion to happen? Why?

[Starve The Beast]

I can't believe this story is still floating around. Remember, right after the start of the war, how everybody and his brother had a firm commitment from Saddam to leave Iraq if only Bushhitler would spare his country?

This is like hearing a fresh story about how the Y2K computer glitch is going to plunge us into a new dark age. Can we move on, already?

[Dog Gone]

Why would the Arab League have to give approval to such a deal, or more precisely, why did their failure to approve it torpedo the whole idea?

And why haven't we heard of this before?

[EGPWS]

But the 22-member Arab League, led by Secretary-General Amr Moussa, refused to consider the initiative.

They chose wisely and with self interest as their guide.

[GSlob]

Well, nothing's lost, actually. So let him be tried and hanged (in any sequence) and the corpse could then be flown to UAE. Everybody should be happy.

[Northern Alliance]

It was not clear why Arab opposition alone scuppered the arrangements, which Al Arabiya said would have seen Saddam go into UAE exile with a promise of protection from legal action

That's it? Without an explanation, the whole story doesn't make sense.

[FreedomNeocon]

Lemme guess... he would have 'accepted' exile in Syria where he would have nothing to do with trying to regain power.

Yeah, we could just make sure Kofi and the UN with the help of France and Russia to keep an eye on him.

Yeah... thats the ticket...

[patriciaruth]

I think you spell this P-L-O-Y.

[cdrw]

Oh I'm sure it was all a vast conspiracy by the US who manipulated their puppet governments in the Muslim world to do their bidding. It's all clear evidence that the US needs to be driven into the sea (whichever one they can drive us into) </sarcasm>

I remember these negotiations taking place. Dubya tried to get Saddam to comply, then he tried to get Saddam to step down, then he gave one last warning that we we're going to take him out if he didn't get out of town ...

The Arab countries wanted Saddam gone for many of the same reasons we did. He had murderous designs on the whole region and had repeatedly demonstrated his willingness to pursue those goals. The Arab countries knew that Saddam would emerge from the sanctions with tremendous political strength and that he would use the post-sanctions political cover to fend off all accusations against his restarted weapons programs. The Arab countries would be his first targets because they have oil. He calculated that he could develop WMD in the post sanctions environment faster than any coalition could develop the political will to try shutting him down yet again. He figured that once he had the WMD he would be unstoppable.

THIS IS WHY WE WENT TO WAR IN IRAQ AND MOST OF THE WORLD COMPLETELY MISSED THE POINT THANKS TO THE MEDIA. THE PRESIDENT DESCRIBED THIS RAIONALE IN HIS SPEECHES AND WAS IGNORED. ALLOWING SADDAM TO EMERGE FROM SANCTIONS AFTER HAVING VIOLATED THE TERMS FOR TEN YEARS WOULD HAVE BEEN A STRATEGIC DISASTER WITH GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS.

We can all thank slick willie for allowing the situation to fester to the point where Dubya had no real choice but to execute the war.

[Dilbert56]

This is relevant only to the extent it highlights the President's offer. On the eve of the war he offered to defer military action if Saddam and his sons left Iraq. Remember that when the moonbats tell you the President wanted war at all costs, that the war was pre-determined, that we weren't really after regime change but oil, etc. That offer, which we would have been obliged to honor it if Saddam, Uday, and Qusay bugged out, is proof positive of our intentions.