Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

The Decision to go after Saddam

Michael O’Hanlon, a respected analyst at the Brookings institute, offers a critique of the effort to get Saddam on the first day of the war. He wants to know why it took so long to make the decision (he claims six hours). Since he admits that we probably do not know enough to offer such a critique, it is odd that he did. He thinks that a debate about the decision may emerge in the future. What strikes me as important is not the future but the past. If, as appears likely, we had information from a human source as well as from technical means that led to the decision to strike early to kill Saddam or senior leaders, how long have we had the human source? Has he told the USG things that the government could not share (or share only perhaps with the British) because the source was so sensitive? Does something this source revealed explain the adamant position of Bush and Blair over the past months?

Discussions - 1 Comment

Perhaps it took six hours, because the White House may not have wanted to kill Saddam. The up front killing of Saddam - may have stopped the warfor starting. NO WAR would mean NO take-over! See what the Zionists at the American Enterprise Institute thought about this!

From another article:
"Media reports quoted U.S. officials as saying that the raid was directed at a "target of opportunity," possibly Hussein and his two sons themselves, shortly after the 48-hour ultimatum delivered by President George Bush had expired. If the raid had succeeded in killing the three men, U.S. officials told reporters, the Pentagon’s war plans might have shifted dramatically against an all-out war.
But fortunately for the neo-conservative hawks over at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) on 19th St., three blocks from the White House, it appears that Hussein remains alive, and the invasion will now go forward as planned. "That we appear not to have gotten Saddam Hussein last night ... may be a blessing in disguise," came the email message from AEI’s press center. "

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