Shrewd Iraqi Political Move
- December 05, 2002
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The New York Times has an article talking about Saddam urging the Iraqi leadership to back the UN inspectors. The article suggests that this demonstrates the massive internal struggles within the Iraqi leadership. I think it’s the exact opposite. I think this is a very shrewd political maneuver to erode public support for a war against Iraq. Everyone knew the Iraqis would try to deny they had WMDs and would never believe them if they said so. So what better way to show the world that “Saddam is reformed” than to have a high-ranking Iraqi leader go the usual route, but then have the benevolent Saddam step in and urge cooperation? This makes him out to be a good person not only to his people, but to all the people who are against a potential war with Iraq as well as paints a negative light on the “unjust, arrogant, debased American tyranny”, as Saddam put it. Very shrewd.