I know you are convinced that we are being blackmailed by Hussein, but I would remind you of President Bush's speech last night, and these words:
. And we will not allow any terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with weapons of mass murder. Now and in the future, Americans will live as free people, not in fear, and never at the mercy of any foreign plot or power.
I believe that the decision has been made to take Saddam out. I also believe that we will withstand whatever threats he has made.
Agreed. Bush announced that almost a year ago. But nobody knows how to do it without risking the loss of millions of American lives. Saddam is not Milosevic. He's not Diem, or Noriega. He's given some thought to this problem -- the problem of getting into MAD on the cheap -- and the solution is not that hard. I think he's cracked it. If he didn't crack it -- if somebody else made the anthrax sent to Daschle last year -- then Saddam should have figured it out by now. There are no inspectors in Iraq now -- not that they would do the slightest bit of good if they were there -- and the public cross-endorsements between al-Qaeda and Saddam are flying thick and fast. He's sitting on a personal fortune of $7 billion and has had a year to put together a plan -- if he didn't have one already.
There's a reason for his defiance. He thinks he's got Bush in a tight spot and, objectively, he's probably right.