[goldstategop]

Absolute tyrants have yes-men and toadies around them. The advisers of tyrants know better than to offer a candid and factual appraisal of the real world outside. As a result the tyrant becomes isolated both from the outside world and from his own people. We can be thankful tyrants are not as appreciative of truth and the power of free ideas as are the leaders of free societies. That's what's made the rout of Saddam Hussein's Iraq so awesome. Freedom beats tyranny, hands down, every time there is a conflict between the two philosophies.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Apparently, he was relying on The Great Satan's ramblings that the U.S. would never attack!

[VOA]

Saddam obvious went with General Pershing instead of Patton.
"Trust the French" vs. "I'd rather have a German division in front of me
than a French one behind me".

[The Great Satan]

Well, since he's still alive, he obviously wasn't fatally wrong, was he?

[EaglesUpForever]

I think Saddam's logic was that Russia had been against him the first time, or at least "neutral," while this time he had their full support: their awesome advisors, their fierce weapons, and their diplomatic prowess. How could he lose? After all, he had all of Hollywood behind him as well, and all the Democrats.
The combination of Russian military might and the Americans' inability to tolerate the inevitable high number of casualties was bound to make us turn away with our tail between our legs...

[AgThorn]

Even if they believed Iraq was on a losing streak, Saddam's subordinates would not have dared utter a defeatist word lest they and their families suffer.

I guess that explains the absolute lunacy of Baghdad Bob's claims in the closing days as well ...

[Billthedrill]

Well, if you want to avoid the shredder ride at Saddam World, you may not wish to be entirely candid with the boss in regard to that armored division camped in his eponymous airport. Nevertheless, his behavior suggests to me more that he thought that the invasion could be prevented diplomatically than that he felt it could be defeated in the field. If the latter, somebody with a Slavic surname deserves credit as the best con man since Newman's character in The Sting. If the former, that surname is likely to be Gallic, not Slavic.

A guess on top of a guess, but it seems likely enough to me at this point - somebody told our boy that the U.S. would never take gross military action alone, and in the absence of UN sanction, and that the latter could be prevented by the use of a veto on the part of...let's see, Great Britain is eliminated, so, France, Russia, China? Three powerful pieces, any one of which could checkmate the U.S. in the UN...unless somebody from Texas kicked over the board. International diplomacy's much more like poker than chess anyhow...

[the lone wolf]

Saddam thought Bush II was like Bush I and Clinton.

He was wrong.

[konaice]

Pretty lightweight artical, all questions and no answers, and not any really good guesses.

[this_ol_patriot]

How could Saddam Hussein have been so fatally wrong?

Simple, he forgot that Bush was not Clinton.

[GretchenEE]

The former dictator used his own gun to blow off the head of his Minister of Health in the hallway after the chap reported some bad news in a staff meeting.

Pretty convincing.

[Boot Hill]

The Washington Times asks:   "How could Saddam Hussein have been so fatally wrong? He must have thought it was a bluff. Otherwise he would have surrendered, hoping to fight another day."

He wasn't wrong. Saddam saw that America had been awakened by the events of 9/11 and that this was the end. He knew we'd set a trap for both him and his country for which there was no way out. He recognized what many in the West failed to see, that the impending attack on Iraq was not about weapons of mass destruction, it was about the terrorism that Iraq (and many other Middle Eastern countries) had fomented against the West for decades. Understanding that, Saddam saw that there was no way he, his terrorist network, nor the Ba'ath Party would be allowed to survive this attack.

Götterdämmerung: Twilight of the Gods. The final battle between the powers of good over the powers of evil. And Saddam clearly knew which side he was on.

--Boot Hill

[Voltage]

The answer: Saddam was a dictator cross-dressing as a military leader.