Bush's '48 hours to get out of Dodge' warning expired, and intel led to attacking an early morning meeting in Baghdad. So--where's Waldo?--is Saddam dead? wounded? or alive? --Orson
US Delta Force commandos seriously seeking Saddam. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-617223,00.html
If he's not dead, he certainly is awake, doing the Bagdad shuffle. Some friend of his must have the phone number of the Pentagon.
I suspect he is hiding in a bunker deep underneath one of this palaces. He's most likely playing cards or darts to pass the time away. I wonder if Usama Bin Ladin is sharing his quarters?
Opinon abounds... ...but the post bombing tape of Saddam looked nothing like the Saddam in the CBS interview: the camera was out of focus, the mustache too gray, he hid behind thick glasses, and the real saddam uses a tele-prompter. As a buddy mused, "how can I respect a billionaire dictator too cheap to have a teleprompter!" But lets face it: if a Howard Hughes-like reclusive, paranoid dictator dies during a times of crisis, those similarly paranoid around him have every reason to keep the pretense of his rule going. My surmize is that this is why the war goes on: someone has to say "Uncle" before arms are laid down. (A few hours after the hit, I saw a BBC World Service guest utter this inainity: "Saddam has every reason to show up!" Hey, buddy: how about HE'S DEAD!) The other possibility is that it was Saddam, but a file tape--he couldn't show up. Nothing in it dated the speech. Another possibility is that of the fracturing of the governent and civil struggle. But a quickly waged war may strangle this like a stillborn baby. --Orson
Re: Re: Opinon abounds... Looking forward to the next images of Saddam....................wearing a baseball cap.
Re: Opinon abounds... Is it just me, or did that person look like a Middle-Eastern version of Captain Kangaroo? Bruce
An update...... I've heard news reports on TV and Radio saying eyewitnesses saw Sadam being carried away on a strecher with an oxygen mask. Is he alive though, that is still a mystery. Kevin
Welcome to a brain skid: I noticed no time indications in that speech, either. Yes, if he's dead they might want to pretend he's alive, for obvious reasons (rally the troops, etc). They might pretend he's alive while what's left of the RCC jockeys for power or tries to figure out what to do next. but-- They might kill a double to make us think he's dead, so that the real SH can go live with our "friends" in Saudi. If he's planning a last-ditch use of WMD, our thinking he was dead would create overconfidence on our part. That is, "rally the troops" may not be part of the Iraqi strategy. A not-really-dead SH might flush out commanders and units ready to defect to our side, thinking he's dead, so that SH can know who's really loyal. A dead or a "dead" "Saddam" or Saddam would make a great martyr for PR purposes. While I'm at it: Prez Putin (KGB alum) has won the arm-wrestling contest with the pope for moral leadership of the peace movement, observing that it's always immoral to overthrow a regime and lamenting civilian casualties. Of course, the Russian attempt to overthrow Shevardnadze's government in Georgia and the Russian targeting of civilians in the war against Chechens don't count.
Nearly 60 years later and no one has ever claimed seeing the body of Adolf Hitler. So what makes anyone think they are going to see Saddam's body (in a box or on a bed)? If he is still alive, he is most likely with his friends in Saudi Arabia.
