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03/17/2003 Entry: "Iraq Rejects Bush Call for Saddam Exile"

Iraq Rejects Bush Call for Saddam Exile

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=586&u=/nm/20030317/wl_nm/iraq_exile_dc&printer=1

I don't get the political hyperbole - the fact that Sadaam was so miserably defeated 12 years ago and his army isn't any better now than it was then ought to be a key indicator of how it will perform this time. I get the impression that he just doesn't care, because regardless of the outcome, he has an escape strategy in place. I suspect that before he is done losing he will launch a few attacks on Israel in the outlandish hope that he will get the rest of the Arab world to at least unite against Israel in war and give himself some sort of Arab world hero status.

He tried this last time but Israel didn't bite. Israel may this time since the US can't do much to prevent it - after all, in the post-9/11 world we asserted the right to invade Afganistan to protect our country, so Israel most certainly has the right to defend itself against an advertised sworn enemy actively on the attack.

Of course, Israel's whuppin' up on Iraq may just cause the already fragile Arab-US coalition to collapse, which will lead to a huge war in the region. That's probably why the US has so damned many troops nearby. We only need 1/4 of them for just Iraq, but if the rest of the Arab nations get ugly we'll definitely need the backup.

In the end, we may wind up either with "protectorship" of those hostile Arab nations or absolutely no access to any of their oil, and this will spill over into World War III. Israel of course will evict as many Palestinians as it dares, dumping the refugees into a defeated Arab state.

This is a slippery slope we're on. We're still dealing with the aftermath of Britain's imperial downfall at the end of WWI and WWII. If they're lucky, since Britain's been so supportive we may just give them back a few of their "favorite" colonies.

This will make France and Germany cry, which may even potentially lead to the breakup of the European Union. After all, they won't be making any more money selling components for weapons of mass distruction in exchange for favorable oil prices.

But that's a long shot right now, IMHO. This country seems to get itself involved in huge conflicts once or twice a century at the very least, and we're due. The idea that we could last 60 years without another world war is preposterous. This one will be the Bush legacy.

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