Thursday, October 07, 2004
Saddam's Bluff
One of the questions that has been running through my mind for a long time now is, if Saddam didn't have wmd, why did he keep up the facade of having and hiding them?
The Captain's Quarters has an excellent piece on the story, and make what seems to be a good case of what might have been going on:
Saddam made tons of money in the Oil-For-Food corruption -- billions of dollars, mostly untraceable at the time and even now mysterious and difficult to find. The UN's corruption allowed Saddam to solidify power in Iraq and make himself the sole conduit of necessary materials, as well as the sole arbiter of who received the goods once purchased. He and his sons set up a perfect mob-style patronage system that ensured loyalty for his allies and starvation for his enemies, turning themselves from a totalitarian Stalinist state to an Arab version of the Sopranos run amuck.
The Captain's Quarters has an excellent piece on the story, and make what seems to be a good case of what might have been going on:
Saddam made tons of money in the Oil-For-Food corruption -- billions of dollars, mostly untraceable at the time and even now mysterious and difficult to find. The UN's corruption allowed Saddam to solidify power in Iraq and make himself the sole conduit of necessary materials, as well as the sole arbiter of who received the goods once purchased. He and his sons set up a perfect mob-style patronage system that ensured loyalty for his allies and starvation for his enemies, turning themselves from a totalitarian Stalinist state to an Arab version of the Sopranos run amuck.
As long as the money flowed and European and UN officials could be bought, Saddam felt safe with his bluff, convinced that neither Iran nor the US could remove him from power until sanctions were lifted. Once that occurred -- and that was coming soon, pressed by his client states of France, Germany, and Russia -- he would be free to use the Obeidis he had hidden away, as the Duelfer report notes, in order to quickly rebuild his WMD arsenal. And thanks to UNSCAM, he could use the fortune he had amassed to fund the programs without generating any notice at all.
Read the rest. It's excellent
# posted by Knitting a Conundrum @ 5:32 AM 
