William Safire has some pointed advice for handling Saddam's strategy to survive through delay and PR.
How should the allies counter Saddam's strategy of using killers in civilian clothes to enforce resistance, and his tactic of horrifying television viewers in the US by inviting and inflicting civilian deaths? How do the allies overcome the terrorised Iraqi population's fear of an outcome in which Saddam again snatches survival and revival from the jaws of defeat? The answer is to adopt the proposition set forth by Roosevelt and Churchill in World War II: declaring irrevocably that the only acceptable end to hostilities is unconditional surrender.
Change the leaflets and broadcasts. No talks about terms; no amnesties for paramilitary killers; no deals on exile for torturers. Surrender, plain and simple.
Posted by Alan at March 29, 2003 12:08 AM