Sunday, April 06, 2003

Heard This One Before?


On Friday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said it did not much matter what happened to Mr. Hussein.


"Whether he is there or not at the end or found or not is almost irrelevant," the secretary told reporters outside the department.

Allies' New Test: How to Define Victory
In an echo of World War II, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said this week that the Bush administration would settle for nothing short of unconditional surrender. But a half-century ago the Allies were willing to pulverize German and Japanese cities to force the Axis to submit. Nothing like that is planned now.

On a number of occasions, President Bush has defined the war as an effort to bring about "regime change" in Baghdad, which sounds simple enough: Get rid of Saddam Hussein and his coterie and replace them, as soon as possible, with a more benign, proto-democratic government. But it is not just a matter of driving Hussein & Company from their offices, palaces and hideouts.

As recently as a week ago, Washington talked glibly of "decapitation." But no vainglorious pledge was made to capture Mr. Hussein, "dead or alive," as had been made with respect to the terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who is embarrassingly still at large, as far as anyone here can discover.

On Friday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said it did not much matter what happened to Mr. Hussein.

"Whether he is there or not at the end or found or not is almost irrelevant," the secretary told reporters outside the department.

Nevertheless, a considerable military effort has been mounted in an attempt to close off the possibility that Mr. Hussein might escape to the north, by way of an underground command-and-control facility near Tikrit, his hometown. It was bombed this week with munitions that can penetrate bunkers, and Special Forces units are keeping watch over the Baghdad-Tikrit road, according to Brig. Gen. Vincent K. Brooks, the Central Command spokesman.

If the Iraqi dictator has indeed survived so far, he might well survive a little longer. He might even slip out of the encirclement of Baghdad, making his way through the chaos of defeat to try to mount a long, costly underground campaign against first the American occupiers of the city and then the new Iraqi government there. Certainly he could find shelter in any of several Arab countries hostile to the allied forces' invasion, if not enamored of the old government.

To envision the potential, one need only look a few hundred miles west. The Israelis have "won" every war against Islamic foes, but they are still engaged, after many decades, in combat against shadowy opposition.

In that sense, it is hardly "irrelevant" whether Mr. Hussein lives to fight another day, in another way. As has already been demonstrated in the current war, many Iraqis who believe that Mr. Hussein's agents retain any power are reluctant to throw in their lot with British and American troops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/06/international/worldspecial/06ASSE.html

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