Replies

I have little doubt that Hussein would love to kill millions of Americans. What I find less easy to understand, though, is why he would risk attacking the U.S. with disease. Obviously he would know any retaliation we would undertake for such an attack would, to say the least, kill him. He must also understand that the Bush administration wouldn't require an overwhelming preponderance of evidence to go after him-- particularly in the wake of the airline attacks of 9-11.

So what is supposed to motivate Hussein to do attack us with antrhax, according to those who pin the deed on him?

I guess someone might speculate that Hussein would be hoping to inflame Muslims in the Middle East through instigating a massive U.S. response. But how Hussein is supposed to see his own government surviving an American retaliation, whatever else might come of the situation in the Middle East afterward, is very hard to see.

So, I'm skeptical that Hussein himself is behind any anthrax release in the U.S. That terrorists might have gotten ahold of anthrax through contacts in Iraq without the Iraqi government knowing about it seems more likely to me.

Saddam is not the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but I doubt that any of his anthrax could get away without his knowledge.

I have little doubt that Hussein would love to kill millions of Americans. What I find less easy to understand, though, is why he would risk attacking the U.S. with disease.

If Saddam was in on 9/11, which I pretty much take for granted (I doubt his agents were meeting with lead hijacker Atta to swap shish kabob recipes), then he has already knocked down the WTC towers, killed 5,000 American civilians and tried to destroy the White House and Capitol. The real question is, how could he hope to do that and avoid being removed from power? He had to have an insurance policy. What was our insurance policy for forty years? Mutual Assured Destruction. How could Saddam threaten to destroy America, without nuclear weapons or ICBMs? Using biological warfare. How could he convince America that he has them, without forcing our hand and defeating the object of the threat? Possible answer: by incorporating a novel, low-intensity bioterrorism campaign into the terror plan. Make sense?

I have little doubt that Hussein would love to kill millions of Americans. What I find less easy to understand, though, is why he would risk attacking the U.S. with disease. Obviously he would know any retaliation we would undertake for such an attack would, to say the least, kill him. He must also understand that the Bush administration wouldn't require an overwhelming preponderance of evidence to go after him-- particularly in the wake of the airline attacks of 9-11.
So what is supposed to motivate Hussein to do attack us with antrhax, according to those who pin the deed on him?
I guess someone might speculate that Hussein would be hoping to inflame Muslims in the Middle East through instigating a massive U.S. response. But how Hussein is supposed to see his own government surviving an American retaliation, whatever else might come of the situation in the Middle East afterward, is very hard to see.

So, I'm skeptical that Hussein himself is behind any anthrax release in the U.S. That terrorists might have gotten ahold of anthrax through contacts in Iraq without the Iraqi government knowing about it seems more likely to me.

Kudos to you - with all the panic and confusion it's hard to be clear headed and look for the big picture. What's unfolding here is a series of hints that point not to a terrorist operation, but to an intelligence operation. You can't have all the precision, all the sophistication, give no warning signs and leave no traces, the next day cough up weaponized anthrax here and there, and yet be a deranged opium-smoking lunatic issuing 'religious decrees' out of a cave 10000 miles away. We need to be level-headed and work our way back to vision and motives, without automatically assuming or excluding the involvement of anyone. Who's expecting to accomplish what?

Because Hussein understands that the US only uses "measured responses." The only thing our war on terrorism is doing is creating thousands more Bin Ladins. The proper and effective retaliation would be to warn and then attack Baghdad with a nuclear weapon. Then announce to the Arab world that if the United States is struck again the next city to be hit with a nuclear weapon will be Medina, and then Mecca. The result would be that the Arabs themselves would be rooting out Al Quaida and Bin Ladin and bringing us his head on a silver platter. He would become a threat to them if we had the courage of Harry Truman.