Quote:
Originally posted by Lanny_MacDonald@Oct 10 2004, 05:04 PM
I have not read the article, but here is what I know and feel to be true.
Saddam Hussein had an immeasurably large ego. He saw himself as the lynchpin to the MIddle East and its most important player. He, like President Bush, did not realize that he was just another small fish in a big pond. Now Hussein liked to keep up appreanaces that he was the BIG fish in the Middle East and liked to be the guy that could keep America off balance and be seen as a bit of a strong leader for that reason. He knew his weapons were destroyed and that is why he put up this facade of playing cat and mouse with the inspectors. It was a game and one that would buy him credability in the Arab world. Unfortunately by doing so he built up this facade that he was also hiding something that he was still a serious threat. Even though he was a toothless lion he still had the mane and could roar, which scared the other animals enough to respect him.
Hussein screwed up by p*ssing in Bush's pool and not believing that Bush would do the most assinine thing possible, and invade Iraq. Hussein's sabre rattling was just that. Sabre rattling... at a gun fight. He had a sabre, he rattled it, but he had no other weapon and he was staring down the barrel of a several loaded shot guns. Hussein looked like a tough guy right until the very end (even the stories of him hiding in a super secret bunker, instead of a hole in someone's back yard, made him look powerful) and that is what Saddam wanted the most. To be perceived as a tough guy and a great leader in the MIddle East. Nothing more, nothing less.
|
I more or less agree, but I think his sabre rattling was as much out of necessity as it was out of ego
If Hussein gave up all his cards and told his neighbours that he had nothing, it would have only been a matter of time until parts of Iraq were annexed. It's a rough region where he had to look tough. This is why the cowboy diplomacy was doomed to failure from the beginning. Hussein couldn't do things Bush's way without putting his country in an equally dangerous position.