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Legend has it that Saddam Hussein might've belived he had WMDs, including nukes too, because he was surrounded by yes-men, and the only other alternative to bei

Legend has it that Saddam Hussein might've belived he had WMDs, including nukes too, because he was surrounded by yes-men, and the only other alternative to being than a yes-man in his regime was to be dead. That's a pretty clever defence, claim you were desperately delusional when interpreting underlings' reports (probably being insistent until the sycophants just give up (e.g. keep repeating "I see you added 2 plus 2 and this means 5, right?")), and maybe the jury could just accept that you were incompetent rather than malicious. If she gets out of it I suggest a subset of Dunning-Kruger called Elizabeth Holmes.

redis_mlc 5y ago
> Legend has it that Saddam Hussein might've believed he had WMDs He used chemical weapons in both the Iran-Iraq war and on domestic Kurds. There's numerous photos online, and have been for decades. Those are considered to be WMDs. What he was told that was incorrect was this: French and German advisors told him that the US would not invade. They were trying to remain on his good side for future military and civil contracts. So you can thank our European allies for creating a bubble that US envoys couldn't penetrate. (Yes, the US talked to either him or his representatives numerous times to avoid a conflict. Didn't work. You can look up "Baghdad Bob", who acted like a cartoon, but reflected the regime's thought process about being able to win against the US.) Note that the lasting damage of the war with Iraq is that China had a comparably outdated army, and realized they needed to modernize against the US. There's interviews and reports of employees of Theranos being afraid of retaliation for telling the truth that were published even before the trial.