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Minor correction: Saddam Hussein did not "play along", he pursued a policy of nuclear ambiguity. The resulting ambiguity is what caused his regime to get kicked
by thehardsphere 9y ago
Minor correction: Saddam Hussein did not "play along", he pursued a policy of nuclear ambiguity. The resulting ambiguity is what caused his regime to get kicked over.
Libya's Gaddafi did play along though, and still got killed by the US anyway, so the analysis is still correct even though the example illustrating it is wrong.
- jimmytidey 9y agoThis thread seems a bit naive to me. The UK & US knew Iraq didn't have WMDs, but wanted to invade anyway. The intelligence that the invasion was based on was risible. If you look at Bush's approval ratings, you can see the incentive he had to fight his reelection campaign in the context of a military response to 9/11. That was the reason for the invasion. The West didn't care about the facts of his having WMD or not. Now, we're paying the price of a capricious attitude to regime change in other countries: nothing that can be said will persuade NK that it isn't in existential danger.
- vidarh 9y agoHussein gave the UN weapons inspectors sufficient access that their leader in retrospect has pretty much accused Tony Blair of flat out lying based on what he knew at the time. There was no ambiguity.