A Few Shiny Pebbles

Among the reasons for which some people were against marching against Saddam Hussein is the claim that he and Iraq were and are not a part of the War on Terror, oh, you know, the one where the terrorists are religious Islamist fanatics. According to some people “who know” that there is just no way that the secular Saddam Hussein would form any alliance with Osama bin Ladin and other militant Islamists because they are part of groups formed of religious fanatics, and vice versa. Iraq, they said (and continue to say) was ruled by a secular power. Saddam kept power by holding the teeming (religious) masses in hand, they said.

So I thought about it. I thought about the period between 9/11 and just before the United States did what it said it would do and entered Iraq in 2003.

It is January, 2003.

What is happening in Iraq? Having watched the ouster of Saddam from Kuwait in the “First Gulf War”, I know that, unlike what most people seem to think, there was no “end” to that war—there was no Peace Treaty. There was a Cessation of Hostilities that was based on Saddam’s agreement to follow certain rules, UN Sanctions, such as allowing the U.S. and others to “fly over” Iraq. (Of course, Saddam actually broke that rule by continuing an anti-aircraft fight against our jets in the air, but, hey, no one seemed to get really angry about it.) Another of the rules to keep the cease-fire and not re-start the war, was that a large portion of Saddam’s oil revenues would go to feed and care for the Iraqi people. (And we all know what happened to the money in the UN Oil-For-Food program, so that was another broken rule.) Another rule was about weapons inspections (and really, it does seem that Saddam was being a very bad boy about keeping up his end of the ceasefire agreement). Actually, the First Gulf War was still being quietly waged before, during, and after 9/11, but nobody much noticed it. Well, the military knew, and the UN, and everybody involved, but, well, nobody much on the Left noticed it, and, to be fair, nobody much on the Right, either. Few people in the media, or in talk radio seem to remember. Most people seemed to think the Cessation of Hostilities, the cease-fire under agreed-to-sanction-rules—the rules that were being broken from the beginning—had been a Peace Treaty signed on the victorious field with the tents and the grim-faced men and the military banners and all their glorious ribbons blowing in the desert wind. It seems almost unfair to point out that it wasn’t at all a Peace Treaty, the War hadn’t ended, and that the First Gulf War actually continued right up to the time it morphed into the so-called miss-named Second Gulf War.

But that fact aside, consider Saddam Hussein, contemplating his future, on the eve of 2003, gazing out at the world in the 1990s and into the new century. Still in power, he is siphoning off billions of dollars from the oil revenue. He knows that in the last few decades Islam has had a major rebirth as a movement for overall theocratic power and the Shari’a law. He has seen first-hand the rise of the Islamist terrorism movement, and he has a good estimate of what it means. With all his oil money, and all his land in Arabia, and all those observing Muslims of different kinds in Iraq, no one among the terrorist powers is going to leave him alone to play in his sandbox with his toys. The time has come from him to make up his mind about which side he’ll take. Bummer.

So let me see, um, hmmm. Saddam wants to keep his power, wants to grab more and more money, wants to get back at America, and wants to make certain that when—inevitably—Iran gets its nuclear weapons, he won’t be blackmailed (at least for a while, like, say, for his lifetime). He knows that the future of the Islamic world is going to be chaotic for years because of the religious fanatics, who think nothing of killing Muslims who are not their “pals”, and for whom “collateral damage” means “as many innocent dead and injured as possible”. And if the Islamist terrorists want to take over the entire Muslim world—which they do—then “the entire Muslim world” is already a battlefield in the Great Terror War. (It should be noted that according to the jihadists, “the entire Muslim world” has roughly the contours of all the continents on the entire Earth.) And, uh, Saddam is himself sitting there in oil rich Arabia, very much a part of the Muslim world (for all his own secularity), all in all a very, very rich target for Certain People. Saddam, whether he likes it or not—and he doesn’t, of course—is at the very center of one of the many strategic targets of the Islamist terrorists.

He knows that it is highly unlikely that he depend for safety on people in the West—like Americans—who want him out of power and dead, even though some countries in the West—France, Russia, oh you know, the usual suspects—are willing to deal with him fraudulently for mutual under-the-table profit (for the moment—things like this change fast). And he knows that the fanatics need money, facilities for training, equipment and communication and all the other things that they could get from a person—such as Saddam himself—who is in a position to siphon off billions of dollars in oil money for his personal petty cash bin, and who controls a large piece of real estate (“Iraq”) in which would be possible to form all sorts of fun training camps, and mockups of potential targets, and even, if they sweet talk him into putting off that extra wing on his 27th palace for a few weeks, there might even be really big toy to train with, such as a commercial airliner or something. And laboratories. And all sorts of other Neat Stuff for the Budding Terrorist.

And he knows that radicals and countries controlled by them (such as Iran) will probably be more than willing to allow him his own fun and games within his own borders if he allows them an alliance rather than taking a stand against them, especially when they are developing nuclear weapons, especially when they could use his Iraq and his money and power through him, without having to go to the immediate bother of trying to conquer it by warfare. The big shot terrorists are patient, and will take power and funding and land and materials when it is offered with a lavish, approving hand. Saddam glances at his hand and knows that it can be lavish when he wants it to be. What luck!

And, finally, he knows that because of the mass movement of Islamic revivalism and its most fervent adherents—the fanatics—those Terrorists who seek power mean to take it when they can. Saddam tells himself fhat no matter where Muslims are—like, you know, right outside his window as far as the eye can see—some will catch the fever and create more and more trouble for him, especially since, as a tyrant, is a single target, and not like a Democracy, where there is an engulfing system ready to replace people without changing the system. The terrorists could move against a secular leader such as (*gasp*) Saddam himself! Oh, no! and there is the threat of the nuclear Iran…. Oh, my goodness! What shall he do?

But wait, but wait! Surely not all is lost!? What if he, you know, sorta, kinda joins the Fund the Terrorist Game, makes secret agreements, provides training camps, pays each of the families of Palestinian suicide-bombers thousand of dollars—a little carefully-placed advertising in the marketplace is always useful—makes plans, and generally enters the Islamist Terror Arena of Possibilities?

Of course, he is secular, so there is that pesky little problem of Islamist fanaticism still lurking in the cultural background—and the foreground, and the sideground. Okay, so maybe at the moment, in 2003, before the threatening Americans cancel the Cessation of Hostilities and resume the Gulf War, he does sort of feel like those British troops in the Charge of the Light Brigade, surrounded by deadly enemies….

And then it hits him. The Light Brigade went to their deaths because “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die…”—they got their orders from above, from Headquarters! They had no choice—because of honor—but to obey and charge the cannons to their deaths. And here Saddam kinda laughs to himself. How like some Brits to worry about honor! He’s not like them at all! Why, for one thing, this bit about “honor” is all a matter of definition, and Saddam owns his very own dictionary! That won’t bother him! (It never has.) And, by gosh, by golly, Saddam is also his very own Headquarters! Orders don’t come down to him, they go down from him! Religion is no problem! Forget the Brits. Or, remember Henry VIII of England—he stopped being a Catholic and became a Protestant to grab power in his Kingdom. And consider the French! Wasn’t there a French Prince who had the chance to become King of France except for the tiny problem that he was a Protestant and Paris was adamantly Catholic? Oh, yeah—Henry of Navarre it was. He said the famous line, “Paris is worth a mass”, converted to Catholic and became Henry IV of France. (Trust the French to have the perfect sentiment for a power grab!) Two great kings who changed their religion on the spot to grab more power. History was such an excellent teacher!

And besides, Saddam tells himself, he’s always imagined himself a modern Nebuchadnezzar, the only one really worthy of standing bestride the Arabian landscape. And he just knows that he is destined to take Syria, to march into Jerusalem, to help destroy Israel, to conquer and lay waste just like the Babylonian King! If he has to be part of an alliance, well, so be it! At least if the Moving Finger writes, well, if he’s lucky he can put that off to the next generation, just as Nebuchadnezzar did!

It really wasn’t that hard a decision. After all, it’s the kind of decision countless other leaders have made and will be making in the future when faced with Temptation combined with the threat of Terrorism. As long as someone has something to trade to the terrorists, there will be some who trade. Some will rationalize that they are trading money or power or something else the terrorists want, but only to save themselves or their own country for the time being. Some won’t bother to rationalize, they will do anything that brings them money or power, even if it means selling out their birthright or their country or their neighbor. Wasn’t he, Saddam, already dealing under-the-table with willing Westerners who could be bribed? And won’t most others be afraid to call attention to themselves, not realizing that there already is a target on their back simply because they are a part of Western civilization or are not a fanatical Islamist.

And if there are some people in the West who recognize what is going on and try to fight back? Some who will draw a line in the sand and say, “No further”? Some who will be willing to put their lives on the line to keep the wealth and people of Iraq—and elsewhere—from the terrorists, some willing to help by turning off the flow of money and power to the terrorists? Some who will have to fight against terrible odds, who will fight against a death-loving enemy while so many of those around them who should help them fight won’t?

Well, Saddam told himself in early 2003, so far so good. Surely there would be enough people around who were willing to betray the future? There always had been; there always will be.

Right?

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, guerrilla radio, Big Dog's Weblog, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, third world county, Blue Star Chronicles, Nuke's news and views, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, and Public Eye, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.