Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
As for the WMD thing, I have this personal theory that even Saddam believed that Iraq had them, he had to because he knew in defying the west and hiding his so called weapons and threatening to use them that he was putting his own head in the noose.
|
My theory is that he never wanted to outright admit to the world that he didn't have them any more because it would make him look weak. It would practically invite Kurdish and Iranian backed Shia uprisings, plus religious extremist factions to form. WMDs (or at least the possibility that he had them) was the card up his sleeve for keeping people in line.
He did have them at one point (the U.S. armed him to begin with), but I think he got rid of them under pressure from the UN and was trying to work out an agreement with the U.S. to let him save face and keep power. But for the U.S., it was never about that anyway. It was just a pretense.