Unless Saddam is some kind of Middle Eastern Dr.Evil, someone else will be firing the WMD for him. Between the time he gives the order and the time it takes to fire the weapons, someone, whether family member or general, will execute him because he prefers living to dying, even if Saddam doesn't A lot of what ifs make for lousy military strategy. By the way, maybe you noticed, but except for a few German generals, most stayed loyal to Hitler even when the end was an obvious thing...and kept fighting to it.