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"The governments are afraid to trust the people with arms"
So said James Madison in Federalist 46 -- notwithstanding their standing armies, European monarchs are afraid to trust their people with arms.
A more recent demonstration of this comes from a Pentagon assessment of Sadaam Hussein's strategy, such as it was. His military leaders proposed a withdrawal, and letting local Iraqis fight a guerrilla war against American supply lines (the early WWII Soviet situation).
"Mr. Hussein rejected the recommendation. Arming local tribes was too risky for a government that lived in fear of a popular uprising."
He figured that Americans would not commit land forces, because they were fearful of taking casualties. "Mr. Hussein's main concern about a possible American military strike was that it might prompt the Shiites to take up arms against the government. "Saddam was concerned about internal unrest amongst the tribes before, during or after an attack by the U.S. on Baghdad," Mr. Aziz told his interrogators."
· non-US
Comments
I bet old Mr. Hussein has a lot of interesting things to say about his former benefactors. His trial is taking WAY too long. I would not be entirely surprised if he had an untimely heart attack while in custody. Due entirely to natural causes, of course.
Posted by: The Mechanic at March 12, 2006 07:53 PM
One way or another there were plenty of arms around in Iraq. Or why are our guys digging up so many caches? Maybe only the Baathists knew where they were.
Posted by: RKV at March 13, 2006 12:28 PM