Arabs Ask Saddam to Split

subgenius

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Saddam Urged to Make an Exit
Mahmoud Ahmad, Arab News Staff

RIYADH, 18 February 2003 — A leading Saudi newspaper yesterday urged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to make a "heroic" choice and step down from power to save his country and the whole Middle East from a looming US-led war.

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=22879

Wouldn't that be cool?
Its always good to leave your opponent a graceful exit ("saving face").
 
I think it's pretty unlikely Saddam will step down.

I heard on the radio earlier today that some Mideast papers (in Egypt and in one other country that I now forget) are reporting that Saddam has placed his Defense Minister and some other high rankng officials under house arrest, the implication being that if he senses someone is trying to get him out he's going to arrest them. I don't see him going easily. I don't know what's going to happen but it's definitely a big mess.

I think part of the larger problem for the US is the perception of the people in that part of the world. I've read in other places, and you can see it again in that article, that people there literally think the US is as bad as Saddam Hussein. Given that perception it's hard for the US to manuever.

Whatever happens, in the long run the US has to improve it's perception across the globe and in fact doing so would itself be a big step in the War on Terror. It would be a lot harder for Al Qaeda types to take haven in a country where the people have a generally positive opinion of the US.
 
"I heard on the radio earlier today that some Mideast papers (in Egypt and in one other country that I now forget) are reporting that Saddam has placed his Defense Minister and some other high rankng officials under house arrest"

He's hoisting himself on his own petard. He'll have to arrest everyone eventually.
This is getting good.
 
Iraq is suddenly very busy denying the Guardian's story that the Defense Minister is under house arrest.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/3919523
18 Feb 2003 18:49
Iraq denies defence minister under house arrest


BAGHDAD, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Iraq on Tuesday denied a British newspaper report that President Saddam Hussein had placed his defence minister under house arrest.

"This is not only nonsense but ridiculous nonsense," Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told reporters.

The Guardian newspaper said on Tuesday that Saddam had placed General Sultan Hashim Ahmed, a close relative, under house arrest, in an apparent bid to prevent a coup.

The paper quoted Iraqi opposition newspapers as saying that Ahmed was now effectively a prisoner in his Baghdad home.
Click to expand...
The Guardian story.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,897859,00.html
Iraqi defence minister 'under house arrest'

Luke Harding
Tuesday February 18, 2003
The Guardian

Saddam Hussein was last night reported to have placed his defence minister and close relative under house arrest in an extraordinary move apparently designed to prevent a coup.
Iraqi opposition newspapers, citing sources in Baghdad, yesterday claimed that the head of the Iraqi military, Lieutenant-General Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Jabburi Tai, was now effectively a prisoner in his home in the capital.

The minister's apparent detention, also reported by Cairo-based al-Ahram newspaper, is surprising. He is not only a member of President Saddam's inner circle, but also a close relative by marriage. His daughter is married to Qusay Hussein, the dictator's 36-year-old younger son - considered by many as his heir apparent.

< snip >

Last night one independent source in Baghdad contacted by the Guardian confirmed that Gen Sultan was in custody. "He continues to attend cabinet meetings and appear on Iraqi TV, so that everything seems normal," said the source, a high-ranking official with connections to Iraq's ruling Ba'ath party. "But in reality his house and family are surrounded by Saddam's personal guards. They are there so he can't flee."

The source also claimed that several other high-ranking military and government officials had been arrested in the past few days. Any signs of dissent within Baghdad will be watched very closely by US and other intelligence services.
Click to expand...
 
Number Six said:

I think part of the larger problem for the US is the perception of the people in that part of the world. I've read in other places, and you can see it again in that article, that people there literally think the US is as bad as Saddam Hussein.
Click to expand...
Actually, there was a survey done, and it was found that the majority of Iraqi citizens would welcome a U.S. invasion:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=362281
(They don't want war, but they want a change in government, and they realize that the U.S. is the best way to accomplish that.)
 
I'm not that surprised that Iraqis feel that way but I don't think most other Arabs do, which is ironic.

Actually I think it may be hard to tell just how much they hate us...it could be kind of a love/hate thing where they hate us when we do something they dislike but love us when we do something we like. If the US would do more to be perceived on the Palestinian side in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict I bet a lot of Arabs would suddenly love the US. So I think there is some fluidity there.

But a problem is that the fluidity is amongst the non-fundamentalists and the percentage of non-fundamentalists is decreasing. The psycho-fundamentalist types are beyond reach and the greater the percentage those become the worse things will be.
 
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