A side note:

Submitted by norwegianwood (Italy), Oct 7, 2003 at 10:47

I have been saying this very same thing all along. Well, almost.

He claimed to have the weapons but then for twelve years refused to provide documentation of their destruction, knowing this kept the sanctions in place, this was his practice for twelve years. So, when I ponder the possibility that he might indeed have destroyed them, I could not initially conceive of the rationale behind not providing the documentation. And then it hit me. The benefits were three.

A) Paranoid leader that he was and already proved capable of commiting atrocities even on his own people, there was no doubt that he would use them again on anyone of his neighbors or any unruly power seeker like himself, but were it known that his capability to do so were diminished, he would be vulnerable. So, point one is security.

B) While the sanctions did impoverish his nation, it is documented that Saddam himself siphoned millions for himself, he also benefitted from under the table deals with supposed allied forces breaching the sanctions, so reason two economics, economics has plays a role also in part

C) Martyrdom, through his martyrdom he was able to demonize the west and call into question the credibility of the US even amongst its staunchest allies. This martyrdom brought him tremendous amounts of money from countries who would otherwise have been a threat to him, now they shared an enemy. Had he declared no more weapons and proved it and got the sanctions lifted, he would have been vulnerable in a neighborhood where he was not well liked, and vulnerable from within where he was despised. He had no option but to gamble as long as he could.

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