Word: saddams
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Iraq's Ba'athist insurgents have no intention of joining a political process that was "manufactured by and serves the occupying force," the highest-ranking figure from Saddam Hussein's regime still at large has told TIME Magazine. In an exclusive written interview - his first to the Western media - Izzat al-Douri said the Ba'ath Party will continue "to mobilize and bring together the energies of the people for the fight to expel the occupation...
...only if the Ba'athists come in from the cold. But while al-Douri signaled a willingness to negotiate, he insisted the Ba'ath Party would first need to see the U.S. announce a timetable for withdrawal of troops, the formal recognition for the insurgency, and the reinstatement of Saddam's army, which was dissolved...
...Douri, the former Vice-President - the "King of Clubs" in the U.S. deck of cards naming the Saddam regime's most wanted figures - is among several Ba'athist leaders believed to be hiding in Syria, under the protection of the regime of President Bashar Assad. He is believed to be in poor health, possibly suffering from stomach cancer. Nonetheless, al-Douri said the Ba'ath Party has been restructured under his leadership as a "revolutionary, struggle-oriented" organization, in which he plays an influential role...
...rare admission for a senior Ba'athist, al-Douri said the Saddam regime had blundered in its military strategy at the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion. Rather than allow the Iraqi military to confront the coalition forces in open combat, he believes the leadership "should have husbanded the army's strength and means till the second page had been turned." Still, he claims that Saddam's military bounced back, suggesting that elements of the old army are responsible for 95% of insurgent operations against coalition forces...
...with Lieberman's position on Iraq isn't overweening civility, however. It is that he has abandoned his native moderation for utopian neoconservatism. His support for the invasion wasn't reluctant, nuanced or judicious; he saw a better world coming. Before the war, he told me that he hoped Saddam's fall would touch off a wave of democratic reform in the region. Given that the entire Middle East seems ready to collapse into chaos this summer, it might seem an appropriate time to revise or extend those remarks-to regret his naivete or defend his long-term vision...