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re: Which thread are you reading?
azstrummer — (archived)

Saddam smuggling a nuke into the United States? Oh man, you don't know how laughable that sounds. That makes Hussein into a terrorist. Brute, thug, despot, yes, but terrorist, no. There's no advantage in it for him. You need to stop equating people like Osama and Saddam. Man, Bush and Co. have you brainwashed big time. Osama, if you believe his writings, is an Islamic fundamentalist who gave up his wealth and trappings to live in caves and tents, and faced down Soviet tanks on camel back. Saddam lived in crystal palaces, pushed religion away from his government, ate the best food, screwed the best prostitutes. These are two polar opposites. While it's not a hard sell to believe that Osama might light off a nuke in Chicago without fearing the response (if he could get his hands on one), Hussein would only lose power from his act and most likely his life.

At no time in his history did he ever show recklessness with regard to his own safety. He surrounded himself with bodyguards, had numerous body doubles, elaborate hiding places such as deep underground bunkers. Those trappings of power and wealth are seductive and you rarely find people throwing them away for some ideaology.

Nukes are extremely expensive to build. It's not like if you build one you can create an instant large arsenal. Why would a dictator who managed to create one want to give it away to some idealogue who was a polar opposite in his intentions? Why would he waste his trump card blowing up a city in a country with 1000 times more bombs than he could produce in decades? Even making Israel a target is a very risky event. They probably have hundreds of nukes and would retaliate in an instant even if they suffered a huge blow.

You're not thinking here. You're letting emotion rule your logic.

Art

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