Bin Laden forwards militant Islam, an ideology larger than himself. Saddam forwarded only Saddamism, a cult of personality. This means that whereas Bin Laden can find refuge among tens of millions of like-minded comrades, Saddam in the end was alone. *Bin Laden could be hiding in many countries ˆ Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Sudan, or even Egypt or India. Saddam could rely on no such network. *Bin Laden has not ruled a country, much less has he done so ruthlessly, so he lacks the millions of die-hard enemies Saddam has made over the years.
Very useful reminders for those who are already to pack up and send the troops home.
FP: But surely this is a great boost for the War on Terror, no? ...
Pipes: ... I don't ... see it demoralizing the Islamists, who are fighting a larger, deeper, and more ambitious war and for whom Saddam's antics count for little. It is almost like asking whether the Soviet Union was demoralized by a U.S. military victory in Central America.
FP: Fair enough, but the war in Iraq in general is integral to the War on Terror, right?
Pipes: It was not so originally. Problems posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq ... are vestiges of the last war, the cold war, in which the enemy was communism in its many guises (including Ba`thism). That said, the main forces attacking coalition troops in post-Saddam Iraq are Islamist and so the Iraq problem is now indeed becoming integral to the current war on militant Islam.
FP: So will the capture of Saddam in some way facilitate/help the hunt for Osama? Or is there no connection here aside from a psychological boost for the Osama hunt?
Pipes: It could help the hunt for Osama bin Laden by freeing up some manpower, but not so in a deeper fashion.
Scary.