Should we make friends again with Saddam?

We have Saddam as our prisoner. It might have been better if the unit that captured him had reported that he was “shot while escaping” (One way or another). It might have been better yet if this war had never been entered into in the first place. It was obvious at the time to all independent minds without a personal, financial or political axe to grind that he had no WMD. It was, and is still, also obvious to all independent minds without a personal, financial or political axe to grind that the very idea of planting a liberal democracy in any Islamic country is nothing other than a pipe dream. And to those who tried to add a moral dimension by claiming Saddam was a tyrant who had to be removed, to lift the oppression from the Iraqi people: what business exactly was it of ours? All those Islamic countries with the appearance of democracy have exactly that – the appearance of it. There is no Islamic democracy. The very expression is an oxymoron. Islam and Democracy are incompatible. All Islamic countries are governed by strongmen, in one guise or another. Either that or they are out-and-out theocracies governed according to Sharia. Or both. I know it, you know it, everyone knows it. Whenever and wherever Muslims have had an opportunity to vote freely, they have always voted Islam. Always have, always will. Under Islamic conditions, democracy will never develop from the bottom up, and will never be permitted from the top down. It will certainly never be imposed by infidels. When President Bush stood on the deck of that aircraft carrier and triumphantly bragged “Mission accomplished”, I muttered to myself “Prelude over. Main score about to begin”. So it has proven.

So how could we make friends again with Saddam, and what would happen afterwards?

We will never again actually be friends with him; how could we be after killing the two apples of his eye, Qusay and Uday? However, we could reach an accommodation that both he and we could live with. Take him from custody – we have the power (the “right”? An irrelevant question – ignore it. In Islam, might is right.) to do so - then simply re-install him as President under our protection until his force levels are re-established. This would not take long: all the Baath Party operators and members would suddenly reappear, his army would flock to serve him, and it would take him no time at all to re-establish his Intelligence services because they have never gone away. We could arm him to the teeth and be generous to him with our own Intelligence capabilities

Then all we would have to do is keep the borders - particularly that with Iran - sealed while he re-established control over the entire country. It would be not a pretty sight. Then again, we don’t have to look. Saddam never was a friend of the jihadis and theocrats; had it ever been reported to him that his forces had captured bin Laden, for instance, he wouldn’t have just ordered his death: he would have gone to wherever bin Laden was being held and would have personally watched him die. He wouldn’t have wanted to read or hear bin Laden dead, he would have wanted to see bin Laden dead, or even do it himself. That was/is his style.

With control re-established, and the borders sealed so no jihadis could escape, he would hunt down and kill every last one of them. And the Shia wouldn’t trouble him for long. We could then withdraw all our forces from a now peaceful Iraq. From then on the only costs associated with Iraq would be those engendered by keeping Saddam armed to the teeth. Petty cash compared to current costs; and our young men and women would be out of there.

Could we trust him? No, not really, but what would it matter? He would now always know that we could remove him any time; invading and conquering Iraq never was a problem. It’s occupying it that is and would be a problem. In and out – easy.

But we would be deserting our friends? So what? Are Muslims ever really our friends? They are Muslims. We are infidels. Go read the Koran. We’re not talking morality here, only reality. The world wouldn’t like us for it? They don’t like us anyway.

But should we do it? There’s the rub. Saddam is an old man, and doesn’t have that many years left to live. As soon as he died a full-scale civil war would erupt. So what would have been gained by it (and in the meantime, the Muslim demographic bomb is growing here in the West)? No, let Saddam have his trial then be hanged, shot, beheaded – whatever. What business is it of ours what happens to him?

That only leaves us two alternatives.

We could do what the politicians say we should do. We could stay in place until the current government has built up the forces it needs to – attempt to - maintain itself in power. Then, when that has been achieved we would withdraw, having in the meantime spent hundreds of billions more dollars, pounds, euros, whatever; and probably thousands more deaths and maimings of our own young men and women. In the meantime, wannabe jihadis are flocking to Iraq from our own and other countries. And for what? So they can impose their own little bit of death on us. The survivors, once they’ve had some weapons training and combat experience - what do you think they do then? That’s right, they come back here, and to wherever else they came from. What do we suppose will happen once enough of them have done this? Back here in our own countries? That’s right. It’s not so much that our presence in Iraq is inspiring them to to do this. Our presence is giving them the opportunity, that’s all. They’re already well-inspired enough, but inspiration is worth nothing without opportunity and means. If we stay there long enough they will bring this war back home to us. And combat veterans all … on the loose in the midst of our civilian population (and in the meantime the Muslim demographic … you get the picture). A nightmare.

And once we decide that the government there is strong enough to survive on its own, and we withdraw our armies … what do you suppose is going to happen? That’s right. The army we’ve trained and armed will itself split along sectarian lines and there will be civil war (not just between the two halves af the army: the entire population will be engaged).

In both civil war situations I’ve described above, I’ve left out something very big. I’ll include it in this, our last option, but it does apply to the above two options too.

We could just withdraw our forces immediately. Result? Again, civil war. We all realise don’t we, that Iraq is going to have itself a civil war. That cannot be prevented no matter what we do. It’s only a matter of time. The best we can do either by using Saddam, or by supporting the present government, is to postpone it; and that only at great cost in lives and treasure (and combat experience for our own collections of wannabe jihadis). That’s the lives of our young men and women, and our treasure. It will happen. So why not just let them get on with it?

Pessimistic of me you say? No actually: optimistic. Que? Well, our politicians claim that if we aren’t there for the jihadis to fight, then the jihadis will do their fighting here. I disagree. They’ll be otherwise engaged. This is what I think will happen:

We withdraw all our forces now. Immediately civil war will commence. Kurdistan will declare itself independent and clear its territory of all non-Kurds. Turkey will invade Kurdistan. Turkish Kurds will engage in another insurrection, in support of their Kurdistani kin. Down south the Sunni and Shia will be hard at it. Iran will come in in support of the Shia, both in terms of men and weaponry. Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries will not let that go unanswered, and will reciprocate in support of the Sunni. Jihadis will flock in from all over the world, to their preferred sides. Syria will come in in support of Iran. Jordan will get sucked in on the side of Saudi. The unsettled civil war in Lebanon will reignite. The decision-makers in Egypt will be bribed by Saudi to involve themselves to counter the manpower advantage Iran has. Libya, which has no great love for Egypt, will create mischief in Egypt’s back yard, in support of Syria. The Palestinians will start their own incipient civil war.

Everyone will be far too busy to bother about us … or Israel.

If we combine that with a simultaneous withdrawal from Afghanistan, first having armed Karzai and the Northern Alliance to the teeth, then civil war will break out there too, drawing in a large number of jihadis from Kashmir and Pakistan. Musharraf will have to redeploy a large part of his army from the Indian/Kashmir borders to the west of Pakistan to prevent spillover from Afghanistan. India might, with any luck, see that as an opportunity to retake and secure the whole of Kashmir; and deport its own Muslim population to Pakistan and Bangladesh. Pakistan will erupt internally and Musharraf will be toast. Pakistan will go more Islamist than the Islamists. That will give us all the excuse we need to eliminate Pakistan’s, and Iran’s, nuclear capabilities.

Our Muslim communities here in the West will erupt, giving us all the excuse we need to intern them preparatory to deportation. Then no more Muslims to ever enter the West again. Ever. We could allow in the non-Muslim minorities within the Ummah, in exchange for the Muslims we deport. Why let the Muslim demographic bomb grow?

While we are at it, we arm the Christian Falange in Lebanon with whatever it needs. Arm the East Timorese with whatever they need. Arm to the teeth all non-Muslim Indonesians. This would all cost little more than petty cash compared to what Iraq and Afghanistan are currently costing us. And our young men and women would be out of there.

The Ummah would tear itself apart.

Outrageously immoral? Probably – but that is irrelevant. We are in a worldwide existential war with Islam. It being existential, we are entitled to use any and all means necessary to ensure our continued existence. The first, and ultimate moral act is to ensure your own survival. Islam has to be sorted out now. It has repeatedly assaulted the rest of the world for nearly 1500 years, and will continue to do so every time it feels strong enough; it’s about time it was brought to an end once and for all. This is an opportunity.

Ah … what about oil supplies you say? Well, we are going to have to learn to get by with much reduced and more expensive oil supplies sometime this century. We might as well bite the bullet now. That, along with dealing with Islam, is something we should not leave to our children.

Offensive? The truth often is.

Discuss.