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Reagan’s Revenge


It turns out that “Unpaid” is being vindicated from all comers, and the most recent of this was Khidir Hamza, the original head of Iraq’s nuclear programme. Hamza appeared Friday on CNN’s Crossfire and stated blithely that Iraq began to develop WMD with the purpose of counterbalancing Israel’s nukes in the late 70’s. He also confirmed that a preemptive Israeli attack on an Iraqi facility in 1986 hardened Saddam’s stance. He supported an American military invasion. He said that Hussein wanted merely one bomb to use as an ultimate deterrent. All of this appeared to be in line with conventional Bush administration thinking.
What was shocking though, is what else Hamza said. He proceeded to say that the French were totally willing to help Iraq with the program all throughout the 80s in exchange for economic back-scratching. He also said that the whole point of building a nuclear weapon was to gain more leverage in a future negotiation. In other words, Hussein recognized that he would get a far better shake if he had a bomb of his own.
After seeing the response to nations like Pakistan and North Korea, it turns out that Hussein was marvelously prescient. Nevertheless, as an authoritarian dictator Hussein could save himself if only he patterned himself after someone like Pervez Musharraf. If Hussein had soft pedaled the Israelis instead of arming, he wouldn’t have his problem all together. He would get to survive as Hosni Mubarak and Anwar Sadat did for so many years. But for all the remorse Hussein might feel about the wrong course of action, President Bush might want to point the finger at the nonagenarian Ronald Reagan for not brokering an Iraq/Israeli nuclear resolution in the 80s when both countries were US allies.

posted by Thomas at 2:01 AM 0 comments