Give Iraq Back to Saddam?


Yesterday while getting ready for a job interview, I was listening to Talk of the Nation on National Public Radio. The show's host, Neal Conan, was speaking with a number of politicians and foreign policy experts about "Alternative Exit Strategies in Iraq." The show was following pretty much the standard lines of debate on this issue until he brought on, Leon Hadar, of the Cato Institute. When Mr. Hadar launched into his ideas of how the U.S. should handle Iraq, I just couldn't believe my ears!

In a nutshell, Mr. Hadar advocates scrapping any notion of an Iraqi constitution and setting up a "benign dictatorship." "Something like Pinochet or Fujimori," he said. Yes, because there are two shining examples of dictatorship done right! Aw heck, why waste time on peon's like Pinochet and Fujimori? Why not just bring in another big gun like the Shah of Iran? After all, the Shah's regime won the U.S. such feelings of warmth, trust, and friendship in the Middle East, and ended so well (and on my birthday, btw), why wouldn't we want to repeat that wonderful experience?

On second thought, we could probably skip all the hassle of propping up a puppet dictator for a few years until he's overthrown by a population that now hates us, and just cut straight to the chase by putting Saddam Hussein back into power. I mean, why waste 5-10 years sweeping our foreign policy problems under the carpet only to wind up right back where we started? If we're going to be short-sighted about this, then let's do it right and be really short-sighted; let's put a U.S. trained dictator who already hates us back into the driver's seat!

Sheesh! I'm incredulous. Incredulous that anyone actually pays Mr. Hadar for his "analyses," and incredulous that NPR actually gave the guy air time! He's probably floating this idea because he's already submitted his resume for the job.

Posted: Fri - November 7, 2003 at 01:26 PM          

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