I don't remember that Pipes article, but good on him!

Reader comment on item: Salvaging the Iraq War
in response to reader comment: President Bush is "visionary" and Wisonian

Submitted by Charles Martel (United States), Aug 27, 2007 at 18:11

That is what Iraq needs, a friendly, benign strong man.

I have advocated the same thing, using the phrase "tamed Baathists" and basically meaning a less-malignant Iraqi general who would do a Qadafi-style deal with us in order to stay in power and have all the hookers and cocaine that oil money can buy.

Baathism is past its prime as an ideology because socialism has failed, but it is the only significant indigenous Arab alternative to Islam, and I regret us basically finishing it off in Iraq.

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