Bush needs Saddam alive…

Several points:

1.) Saddam was our guy from 1979 thru 1991. His job was to counter the Shiites in Iran and the Shiite majority in Iraq. To that end, we gave him the very WoMD that he used to "murder his own people" and that currently eludes us. And After 1991, we left him in power to continue to counter the Shiites.

2.) All the above did not escape the attention of the Shiite majority. My guess is they realize that we won’t let them rule Iraq as long as we are there. I would further suppose they want us gone.

3.) We’re not leaving Iraq anytime soon. Unless we have a well armed, equally repressive Saddam replacement firmly installed, Iraq becomes Western Iran a few months after we’re gone.

4.) It is politically impossible for us to own up to the above points. To do so would be to admit that we have been and will continue to brutally repress the Iraqi people in order to control the oil.

Saddam is the boogieman that justifies our continued presence in Iraq to the general public. And so we blame all the US deaths on “die hard Saddam loyalists” and “radical Islamic foreigners”. Look forward to “Saddam tapes” for some time to come, because when we announce Saddam is dead, we’ll have to come up with a different justification for staying in Iraq and we’ll have to explain who is killing US troops.

I had not thought of those. I would add that in addition to needing Saddam alive, * also does not want him captured. Otherwise he'll sing like a canary about the Reagan/Bush love he got.

bush needs him dead, just like his sons. Your reason number one is the reason bush needs him dead. The US needed to manufacture a reason to go in, the US did so, they don't need to have a reason to stay. The US , as the occupying force , has a 'legal and moral' obligation to stay at least until a responsible government is established. The US will stay until a government that is friendly to the administration is established.

saddam know to much to be allowed to speak. he will be assassinated. As far as needing 'boogieman' is concerned, they already have a traveling boogie man (osama) who can show up anywhere, anytime he is needed to justify another unprovoked attack.

It's just that we won't announce his death anytime soon. BTW: has anyone besides the CIA examined the "Saddam Tapes" for authenticity?

I think we'll play "Where's Saddam" for quite a while to come.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10756-2003Jul31.html

<snip>
"Much as a different Germany becomes a kind of linchpin for a Europe in which you will not have war, a different Iraq becomes a kind of linchpin for a different Middle East out of which these ideologies of hatred would not come," the official said yesterday.

"The reason I make the historical analogy is, it means it has to be a generational commitment. You can't say after a year, 'Well, this is hard.' You have to stay with it."
<snip>