Saddam resists a push into exile

USA Today ^ | 9/26/2002 | John Diamond

[ex-Texan]

WASHINGTON

[ex-Texan]

Saddam would be happy in Saudi Arabia. Why doesn't he flee?

Maybe Saddam is addicted to torture and rape and alcohol and drugs ?

[rhombus]

Maybe they should offer him a network TV show with Bubba.

[riri]

Or maybe he is just addicted to POWER. That guy aint going nowhere.

[InvisibleChurch]

maybe a buddy-cop show, "Bubba and The Wonderful Leader"

[zarf]

They could call it "Saddamy Tonight!"

[malakhi]

The United States and some of its Arab allies have begun a quiet effort to defuse the Iraq crisis by persuading Saddam Hussein to yield power and go into exile.

Would it help if we arranged for one of his wives to have a Senate seat?

[OldFriend]

He can go to Paris and bunk with Suha Arafat!!!

[Right_in_Virginia]

Why should Saddam choose to go when Mr. Daschle and Mr. Gore have given him permission to stay---with their protection?

[ex-Texan]

Maybe Gore and Dash-hole can sweeten up the pot with an offer of a "Monica?"

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I heard this argument on the radio this week. We give him a billion $ and he exits to Syria or someplace like it. Trouble is, there are just too many people who'd like to kill him. When he leaves Iraq, he's dead.

[sharktrager]

If he stays he's dead. If he leaves, he's dead.

I guess he just has to decide which death is more appealing.

[daviddennis]

We wouldn't need to give him a billion; he could simply take some of the billions he already has.

But look at the strange record of some of these dictators. Pinochet of Chile, who in the long run helped transition the country to democracy, was almost tried and jailed. Saddam would want to avoid a similar fate.

My attitude is that if we make a deal with one of these people, it has to stick unless they go back to their evil ways and start buying weapons. But many people think differently, and a lot of the time I don't think that happens, and Saddam knows this.

Besides, if Saddam was a nice guy or could live in peace, he's had ample incentive to do so over the last decade. If I were him, I'd retire and enjoy my harem of beautiful and talented women. There's no reason why he couldn't do that, but he obviously loves bellicosity for its own sake.

I'm afraid that in the end he will have to die.

D

[BlueNgold]

Saddam in exile = next Bin Laden
He would have $$ and a cult following among islamic extremists. In my mind this is not an option we can live with (literally).

[The Great Satan]

Administration officials made clear this week that they could accept such an outcome as an alternative to war, but the administration does not want to appear to be the originator of the idea, for fear that it would kill any chance Saddam would accept.

Or, to put it more realistically, because people might come to understand that we have been successfully blackmailed into letting Saddam off the hook for 9-11 by his subsequent threat to anthrax the US population.

The people will accept this, BTW, because nobody wants to die. We f***ed up big time (or rather, Bill Clinton f***ed up), and now we have to live with the consequences. But the atmospherics will have to be handled delicately. Hence the Amerithrax hijinks -- and the nonsensical stories about waiting on snapshots secretely taken by Czech emigres to decide whether or not Mohammed Atta did or did not meet Iraqi agent Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al-Ani. Like the replicants in Blade Runner, the public needs a "pillow" for its emotions, and Bush is providing one.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Like an aggressive water moccasin.
Hand me the 4-10.

[aristeides]

I just read Paul Johnson's new little book on Napoleon. Apparently one of the chief reasons Napoleon left his exile on Elba to regain power in France was because the restored French monarchy reneged on its agreement to pay a subsidy to Napoleon on Elba.

For Saddam to accept this kind of deal, we have to provide him guarantees that he can trust. What kind of deal could we make that he could be sure we couldn't back out of?

[The Great Satan]

For Saddam to accept this kind of deal, we have to provide him guarantees that he can trust.

There are no guarantees in this life. Only incentives.

[eleni121]

People who erect hundreds of statues to themselves while still breathing are in no hurry to go into exile or commit suicide. UNFORTUNATELY

[Rockitz]

How about a surgical strike on Saddam alone? Our technology should be good enough to nail him in a surprise attack.