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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sunday, December 14, 2003
Questions and comments American Lord and Savior George W. Bush announced the pre-Sabbath day capture of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein today. Bush said they were certain it was Saddam because Victor French is no longer alive. It would be easy to make fun of much of what Bush said, but the urge doesn't strike me. However, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did have this to say: Today is a momentous day for the Iraqi people. The Iraqi people have now been liberated in spirit, as well as in fact. As they celebrate, we also stop to remember the many U.S. and Coalition forces who gave their lives to make this moment possible – including many brave Iraqis who served in their new security forces and who have died fighting for their country. Thanks to all of them, the Iraqi people face a future, not of terror, but of freedom. Today, many Iraqis can dare to believe what we have said from the beginning: that the era of the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein is over. His terrorist regime is finished.Funny I thought Rummy would be aware that these things were all supposed to be true before the capture. *** The mission that caught Saddam was called "Operation Red Dawn." Given John Milius' cinematic masterpiece Red Dawn (1984), I can't help but laugh. How long before "Operation Amerika"? *** The AP writes: Saddam Hussein was captured based on information from a member of a family "close to him," Maj. Gen. Raymond Odierno said Sunday.*** Via Mike Wazowski, Joe Katzman of windsofchange.net writes: Captured with a loaded pistol, but he never fired a single shot. What a pussy. As usual, "death before surrender" applies only to his Saddam fedayeen minions, not to him.What the fuck? Would Katzman think slightly better of Saddam if he had killed a few U.S. soldiers before being captured or killed? *** I'm not exactly shocked to see that instapundit.com is nearly unreadable but at least I did find out that there might be a problem with capturing Saddam: ...he's caught (I assume by now it's clearly not one of those doubles), and that's likely to be a rather major blow to the "insurgents" -- though I rather suspect that some of that has been supported by Syria, Iran, and Saudi elements in the hopes of keeping the United States busy. With Saddam gone, though, it'll be harder for them to escape responsibility, which is likely to cause them to reduce their exposure in this area. That's unalloyed good news, unless we're looking for an excuse to invade Syria.And things were looking so good yesterday. Actually I suspect this will only boost Team Bush's desire to take over more countries, but I could be wrong. Via Glenn Reynolds I came across Marc Cenedella's thoughts: Let's not forget the role that President Bush's personal bravery played in this capture.Cenedella writes more that's also worth laughing at. *** The capture raises a number of questions such as: -What effect will it have on anti-occupation forces? -What effect will it have on the projects of creating a stable government suitable to U.S. interests, finding weapons of mass destruction and uncovering ties between Saddam's now deposed government and one or more branches of "the terrorists"? -What will be done with Saddam? -Will Kuwait, or even Saudi Arabia, have in role in determining Saddam's fate? -Will Saddam talk? If so, what will he say about his ties to various countries too numerous to fully mention, weapons of mass destruction programs and any efforts to have avoided the invasion? -How connected was Saddam to anti-occupation forces? -What has Saddam's life been like since March? When did he go "on the run" and how many places has he lived in? Did Saddam make any effort to leave Iraq? -How close have coalition forces been to capturing or killing Saddam in the past? -What effect will it have on politics in the Iraq, the U.S. and other relevant countries? |
