Only Hussein Had Full Picture

Based on in depth interrogations with a cooperative Saddam Hussein, a report by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group released Wednesday revealed that the former Iraqi leader’s purported stock of destructive arms was all smoke and mirrors. Apparently, Hussein kept a close watch on his weapons program, and knew that his regime had no capability to make so-called weapons of mass destruction. He kept up the bluff under the assumption that enemies would be less likely to trouble his regime if they believed it had means to protect itself. In the first Gulf War, Hussein did not stop his attack on Kuwait because he feared American bombs. By contrast, he believed that America left his regime in power because it did not want to risk being attacked by Iraqi bombs. Apparently, Hussein decided to cooperate and provide details after CIA interrogators offered to help preserve his story for posterity. He compared himself to the main character in Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea, a man who thought the battle worth fighting despite an empty husk of a victory. –Yale Global