[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[texasbluebell]

bttt

[Campion]

Saddam would be happy in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis would no more have Saddam than the Texans would.

Practically the only country on earth where Saddam could go would be Libya, if Khaddafy gives it the ok. Perhaps Yemen, but I doubt it (and doubt he'd want to go there). Anywhere else and he'd be dead meat.

And, yes, he loves his Johnnie Walker black label.