Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Suppose an American offensive against Iraq bogged down in a bloody stalemate, and Saddam turned his chemical or bacteriological weapons against American troops with devastating effect. Might the U.S. then use nuclear weapons in retaliation and to shorten...
...Pentagon planners. Publicly, U.S. officials have refused to rule out going nuclear. "We'd prefer to keep Saddam guessing," says an Administration source. But Washington decided early in the confrontation with Iraq not to supply nuclear weapons to the ground troops in Saudi Arabia. Nearly 400 ! nuclear warheads are thought to be aboard American ships in the gulf region. Using them, however, would yield no military advantage that would come anywhere near offsetting the horrendous political fallout...
...which by all indications does not yet have the Bomb, other countries might rush to develop atomic arms and possibly to use them. At the same time, revulsion over America's use of the ultimate weapon -- once again against a non-Western people -- would probably shatter the alliance against Saddam...
Ordering a hit on any particular person, even one as diabolical as Saddam, is dirty business. But assuming Saddam's death would stop the Iraqi war machine cold, it would mean one life in exchange for the thousands, or tens of thousands, who might die if the battle continued. British Prime Minister John Major spoke for many people around the world when, alluding to the prospect of Saddam's murder, he said, "I for one will not weep...
Under a 1981 Executive Order, the U.S. government is forbidden to participate in assassination. But the rules of battle arguably supercede that prohibition. In wartime, international law recognizes military commanders as legitimate targets; as commander in chief of Iraqi forces, Saddam thus qualifies. (Of course, so does President Bush.) Washington's denials notwithstanding, Saddam has been pursued by allied bombers. His presidential palace has been hit; his command-and-contro l centers have been hit; most of the places allied intelligence thought Saddam might be have been...