So we could have settled this little Iraq thing for only $1 billion and no lives lost?

Saddam asked Bush for $1bn to go into exile


Saddam Hussein is said to have offered to go into exile for $1bn
bush

George Bush was convinced that Saddam was serious about going into exile

Saddam Hussein offered to step down and go into exile one month before the invasion of Iraq, it was claimed last night.

Fearing defeat, Saddam was prepared to go peacefully in return for £500million ($1billion).

The extraordinary offer was revealed yesterday in a transcript of talks in February 2003 between George Bush and the then Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar at the President's Texas ranch.

The White House refused to comment on the report last night.
-snip-

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23414014-details/Saddam+asked+Bush+for+%241bn+to+go+into+exile/article.do

You know, that's why nobody is stepping up for the Bin Laden reward money, that's why he's still on the loose. (Sorry about the tangent.)

--literally incapable of rationally calculating the outcome of confrontation with the United States! I was told that Saddam and his regime had to be destroyed utterly, because they were so insane with hatred that, not only had they thrown the entire resources of Iraq into hiding their nuclear program, they were so crazy that they were going to give the bomb or some other proscribed (biological or chemical) weapon to Al-Qaida to use against us. Sure, Iraq would be vaporized if that plot was carried out, but certain annihilation could not be counted on to deter Saddam, because Saddam was a madman. They told us over and over.

Maybe...maybe the people who ACTUALLY went insane with hatred, maybe the ones who became completely & irrationally enthralled with their genocidal leadership and who became consumed with an evil lust for mass murder were not the Iraqis as we were told, but....

No! No, it cannot be. It cannot happen here!

this story needs to get out, though.

If I remember correctly, 500 million Euro was actually only worth about $400M back then. Come to think of it, 500 million Euro would still be worth $400M if we'd not invaded Iraq. What kind of additional damage can Bushco do to the dollar if he goes into Iran?

was only going to cost 1 billion it was probably a toss up. Then there would have been the problem of Saddam doing a Napoleon. And of course real men don't negotiate, they send other people's kids off to die.

send trillions of dollars from our taxes to the republican multi-national corporations....The hundreds of billions of dollars spent so far certainly can't and hasn't been spent on the troops.

You make it seem as though Bush simply made a mistake....NO. This was a completely planned long term operation of war for profit.

Hell, for a lousy ten million I'd move my ass to Canada... oh, wait a minute. Already did. :banghead:

Option one: Saddam implements democratic reforms to enable power sharing, with a full democratic take over upon his death; in exchange, we let him get there of natural causes.

Option two, no deal, and we help nature along with a dozen special forces guys and a really good rifle.

"Yeah, that's the ticket! Moral clarity demanded that we kill the sumbitch!"

Translated: Watch your wallets folks... not to mention your hides.