Will Saddam Get the Bomb?

NOW THAT the Gulf War is over, we can drag this bonechilling question out of the closet: If Saddam Hussein had had nuclear weapons on August 2, 1990, how might the crisis have gone? The prospect certainly focused the American mind; polls in December showed a majority believing the best reason to go to war was to stop Saddam from developing nuclear weapons.

Well, to war we went, and we won big. But maybe not big enough. Hard though it is to fathom, Saddam and the Baath are still there, they’re patient and calculating, and thirst for revenge is not a rare sentiment among Arabs. Nuclear revenge perhaps?

About the Author

Adam Garfinkle

Mr. Garfinkle is editor of The American Interest and author, most recently, of Jewcentricity: Why the World Praises, Blames, and Uses the Jews to Explain Nearly Everything (Wiley, 2009).

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NOW THAT the Gulf War is over, we can drag this bonechilling question out of the closet: If Saddam Hussein had had nuclear weapons on August 2, 1990, how might the crisis have gone? The prospect certainly focused the American mind; polls in December showed a majority believing the best reason to go to war was to stop Saddam from developing nuclear weapons.

Well, to war we went, and we won big. But maybe not big enough. Hard though it is to fathom, Saddam and the Baath are still there, they’re patient and calculating, and thirst for revenge is not a rare sentiment among Arabs. Nuclear revenge perhaps?

About the Author

Adam Garfinkle

Mr. Garfinkle is editor of The American Interest and author, most recently, of Jewcentricity: Why the World Praises, Blames, and Uses the Jews to Explain Nearly Everything (Wiley, 2009).