Why Saddam wanted nukes

[john5746]

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/05/saddam-hussein.html

 

From Saddam's diary:

 

"The spread of the Persians... is more dangerous for Iraq than the Zionist entity, now and in the future," he wrote. "The Persians are similarly dangerous to the Arab nation, especially the Arab countries of the Gulf."

 

The more friendly Iraq is with Iran, the better the Middle East situation will be. This won't happen with US presence in Iraq. Better to leave soon and let them have diplomacy. If Iran invades, it will be much easier to take them out than to sit in Iraq currently.

 

Evidence the Iraq wars - the military is much more adept at killing and destroying than maintaining peace between peoples who hate each other and you.

[CDarwin]

The more friendly Iraq is with Iran, the better the Middle East situation will be.

 

Ooh, I don't know about that. Like you said, the Arab states are afraid of an Iranian Empire, and an Iran-friendly Iraq should surely make them even more paranoid. This is the kind of paranoia that can upset balances of power and lead to regional wars.

[Pangloss]

An amusing confluence of arcane terms, which seem appropriate coming from such him. Too bad idiots like this never seem to go back just a wee bit farther and realize they're all semites (well ok, not the persians).

 

He has a point, though, and while it is necessary to allow Iraq to ally with Iran at the moment, over the long term that's going to be a source of concern. Tehran is not going to be satisfied with a coalition government -- it wants a second Shi'a state. We'll need to keep a close eye on that.

[bascule]

I'd like to nuke my enemies too! I mean, I'm not some absurd insane middle east dictator and my own moral code prevents me from leveraging nuclear weapons against my enemies, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't like to...

 

Point being Saddam's attempts to acquire nuclear weapons are like my own, i.e. nonexistent.

 

Meanwhile A.G. Khan ensured Pakistan has REAL nuclear weapons, in a political climate which seems ephemeral at best... now THAT'S something to worry about. Saddam just gave the world lip service...

[CDarwin]

Meanwhile A.G. Khan ensured Pakistan has REAL nuclear weapons, in a political climate which seems ephemeral at best... now THAT'S something to worry about. Saddam just gave the world lip service...

 

Eh, I think too much as been made out those fears. The army controls the nuclear weapons pretty solidly and its not going anywhere any time soon.. The bigger danger from those nukes is that they would get launched at India at some point, the chances of which actually seem to be lessening now.