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Is Capture Of Saddam Bad News For Bush

Juan Cole 12/18/2003

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Is the Capture of Saddam Bad News for Bush?

William Pfaff argues in the International Herald Tribune that there are lots of reasons that Saddam’s capture could be bad news for Bush. It has already enraged and humiliated a lot of Sunni Arabs. It may embolden the Shiite leaders, who no longer fear that Saddam could come back if they do not cooperate with a new US-installed regime. It raises questions about why the US attacked Iraq, since Saddam was clearly so weak and lacking in weapons of mass destruction. And, it happened so far from Nov. ’04 that the capture will have long since been forgotten by then. I entirely agree with Pfaff on all these points, and think I’ve said similar things since Sunday. It is not the prevailing wisdom in Washington, though.

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About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page

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