Re: FW Noam Chomsky in The Guardian Sept. 9

[Ed Weick]

Ed, At 15:35 09/09/02 -0400, you wrote: >What I have trouble figuring out is why the US singles out Iraq on grounds >of being controlled by a madman who may have weapons of mass destruction. >Iraq is not the only volatile place where weapons of mass destruction may >exist.  And there are plenty of madmen in present or potential positions of >power.  After George Bush "gits" Sadam, will he then proceed to stamp out >the other madmen one by one?  For each madman he stamps out, might not >another one (or more) emerge to take his place? I've been trying to explain in the past few weeks why the Bush chose to single-out Saddam -- he's by far the best pretext in order to put pressure on Muslim fundamentalism generally and the Wahhabi sect of Saudi Arabia in particular. If my argument doesn't count for much then you've possibly missed the extract from last week-end's article in the FT, "Smoke on the horizon" by Sir Michael Howard, President of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, and formerly Professor of Modern History at Oxford U. which I posted yesterday. See the fourth paragraph in particular:   Keith, I know all that.  I've been busy, but I've followed at least some of the stuff people have put on the list about Bush's intentions.  The point I was trying to make was that the number of people who hate America is growing and spreading, as is the ability to manufacture weaponry of mass destruction.  It's like sowing dragons teeth.  Git Husain and a hundred more Husains will spring up.  Pakistan, a place seething with anti-western feelings, now has the bomb and God knows what else and the US hold on Pakistan is very tenuous.  Remove Musharraf and someone far less friendly may take over.  Before its collapse, the Soviet Union had advanced mass destructive technology.  Surely much of that is still around somewhere.   In general, Sir Michael Howard notwithstanding, there is no single specific adversary.  There are millions and perhaps potentially billions of them.  My fear about what Bush may be unleashing is something that will fester for centuries.  In a previous posting, I suggested that the US attack on Iraq will begin an endless chain of body bags.  Someone shot me down by saying no, no, no, the Americans will very quickly beat up on Husain.  I agree, but that will only be the first step in something that will go one for a very long time.   Ed