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March 16, 2006
Saddam's Secrets Part 2
I finished Saddam's Secrets earlier this week. General Sada writes towards the end of the book that Saddam did have chemical and biological weapons until a few weeks before the invasion. Under the pretext of sending aid to Syria, Iraq sent the WMD and related equipment to Syria in 737's converted to hold cargo instead of passengers and in trucks. Sada has no direct proof of this and mainly relies on hearsay, although there is a lot of hearsay to back up this account. The other theory I have heard recently is that Saddam destroyed large portions of his WMD stockpiles, but did not tell anyone, including most of his military. Under this theory Saddam wanted to be in compliance enough to avoid being invaded, but not enough to relinquish the fear that would be generated by people thinking he still had WMD.
Sada claims that Saddam was sure he would not be invaded during the first Gulf War and that if he was invaded Iraq would easily win. Saddam thought this in large part because the people advising him were either ignorant of coalition abilities or too afraid to tell him the truth. There is no reason to think Saddam was not getting the same advice before the second invasion of Iraq. Sada was about the only one telling Saddam the truth during the first invasion and Sada was not advising him during the second.
The book was full of interesting stories, such as Sada getting out of bed a few seconds into the first Gulf War. He was staying in one of Iraq's main communication centers and was sleeping in another general's bed that night. About thirty seconds after Sada got out of bed in the middle of the night, one of the first coalition bombs landed in the bed where he just rose from and where the other general was supposed to be sleeping. Sada was sure the general was the target of the bomb and he barely escaped with his life as the room was completely destroyed.
James Lileks is reading the book right now and he has had a similar reaction to the poor layout of the narrative, but Lileks finds it interesting for the same reasons I do:
The day was devoid of the usual crashing hectosity (not a word, but should be) (Did you know, incidentally, that the word 'Saddam' means 'Crasher' in his native tongue? I'm reading a bio of a former Iraqi general it's a mess as a narrative so far, but it's keeping my interest. Review & link to follow. Anyway, he throws away the 'Crasher' fact early in the book, and I don't know why he continues to refer to Saddam as Saddam for the rest of the story; it would be much more immediate if he used the real word, which has odd supervillain / pro-wrestler overtones. And given the ubiquity of the 'Hussein' name, it's almost like the ruler of Iraq was known by his people as an Arabic version of 'Action Jackson.' Crasher! Crasher Hussein! For some reason that made my day) that characterizes Tuesdays; I had one column in the bag when I powered down last night, and the other was easily rendered.
The other weird thing is the last dedication at the end of the book. It is to Terry Law, who you probably have never heard of. He is a missionary who goes into totalitarian countries. Apparently, Law and Sada have become good friends over the last few years and work together on Christian humanitarian missions. What is weird about that is that Terry Law used to be a fairly regular guest speaker at the church I was a member at for about ten years and that I just left six months ago. I barely know Law, but I have spoken to him before and donated to his causes and heard several personal stories of his activities in Asia. So I am one degree of separation from Sada.
Posted by Pete at March 16, 2006 08:52 PM
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