Would Saddams exile avert war?

[Mrs Fish]

An interesting talking point on the BBC website:

The UK Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw has backed a US suggestion that Saddam Hussein could be given immunity from prosecution if he goes into exile.

On Sunday, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he would favour granting Saddam Hussein and his top aides a "haven" abroad if it could avert a war.

Jack Straw claimed that the leaders of Arab states were privately urging the Iraqi president to go into exile to spare his people and the region a war.

His comments came as press reports suggested that the Saudi Arabian Government was working hard to avoid a war in the region by offering an exile deal for Saddam.

Saddam Hussein has given no indication that he would accept exile, and on Friday warned that Iraq would defeat any invader.

Would exile for Saddam Hussein be a viable solution for the current conflict between Iraq and the US? Is it a realistic proposition? Is it right to negotiate with people like Saddam Hussein in this way?

But where would he go? Here probably like everyone else.

[andyf007]

But where would he go? Here probably like everyone else.

It will be worse than that, as he considers all Iraqi people to be his children.

Andy

[TheLemming]

Seriously though, if Sadam goes into exile, then who is next in line to take over Iraq?

IIRC its his son Uday, who is apparently a grade "A" Psychopath.

Simply removing Hussein wont fix any problems unless damn near the entire government and police system is replaced.

[mel]

He's 73 and rumoured to be suffering from cancer, does it really matter. As said the US objective is not just to get rid of him but his government and successor, if they all get shipped off into excile and a puppet government (with the US pulling the strings) replaces him then yes objective met and no war. If not, here we go again

[ATG]

He's got himself to where he is and held on to power by terrorising people in his own party as well as in the population as a whole. This means that even the people he relies on very heavily to hold his regime together must be used to being shat on from a great height and living in fear of their lives. Given the choice, are these people going to allow themselves to be shat on by yet another dictator? So long as defiance doesn't look completely suicidal, I'd guess there's a reasonable chance that the whole regime will fall apart as soon as he starts to withdraw from the picture.

[cotty]

quick question, if we go to war with Iraq will we be closing our borders and stopping anyone getting in, last thing we want is someone posing as a refugee sneeking a bomb into the country.

[Mrs Fish]

cotty said: quick question, if we go to war with Iraq will we be closing our borders and stopping anyone getting in, last thing we want is someone posing as a refugee sneeking a bomb into the country.

Who knows, but you would hope so wouldn't you?

[ATG]

Unfortunately any bomber with an ounce of initiative could get a bomb into the UK. Look at our coastline. How the hell can we close that?