Failed Iraqi peace initiatives

Cook

Banned
Oh dear.
I fear this thread is about to be deluged by rants from people who will be foaming at the mouth as they strike the keys in their excitement.
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Oh dear.
I fear this thread is about to be deluged by rants from people who will be foaming at the mouth as they strike the keys in their excitement.

I think my mouth went dry...my mind is reeling at the thought of Belorussian government officials asking Saddam Hussein to personally build them an atomic reactor.

"With what?" says Saddam.

"Yellow cake? Eet ees bacon in oh-ven. You make new-clee-ehr bow-mb, and we geeve you Yallow Cake with frosting, yes?"
 

Cook

Banned
...thought of Belorussian government officials asking Saddam Hussein...

I just had the image of the Belorussian customs officer at the airport: “Well sir you’ve got a bit over $20,000 on you that you can’t give a valid reason for carrying so I’m afraid we are going to have to confiscate it.”
:)
 

Cook

Banned
“And we’d like to talk to you about the gold plated AK-47 we found in your luggage.”
:D
 

Cook

Banned
I remember when the Saudi’s cut of old Idi Amin Dada’s phone because he’d racked up a massive bill on international calls (1-800 numbers perhaps?) and wouldn’t pay.

Nothing more pathetic than yesterday’s dictator.
 

wormyguy

Banned
I do believe that the Belarussians know a whole lot more about building nuclear bombs than Saddam Hussein.
 

Al-Buraq

Banned
If Hitler and Eva had escaped to Argentina, would we have seen Amerikabombers raining nukes on the Falklands and would Sra. Peron and Frau Hitler swop fashion tips?
 

Al-Buraq

Banned
What does this have anything to do with Iraq? :confused:

Nothing. My post is rhetorical sarcasm. There are many silly What-Ifs, but a few are real howlers. One would have thought it impossible to find someone unaware that Belarus was one of the inheritors of the USSR nuclear arsenal and only dismantled them or shipped them to Russia in 1993 or imagine that Saddam, his disfunctional family or even his collective scientists had any tangible nuclear knowledge or technology that couldn't be gained from a "How-things-work" picture book.
 
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Nothing. My post is rhetorical sarcasm. There are many silly What-Ifs, but a few are real howlers. One would have thought it impossible to find someone unaware that Belarus was one of the inheritors of the USSR nuclear arsenal and only dismantled them or shipped them to Russia in 1993 or imagine that Saddam, his disfunctional family or even his collective scientists had any tangible nuclear knowledge or technology that couldn't be gained from a "How-things-work" picture book.

Sounds like you didn't bother reading the link that I posted and the sources within the link.
 
There is two questions in OPs post. One is perfectly legitimate WI - Iraq's peace initiatives. The second one is ridiculous though. Belarus would not need Saddam to go nuclear even if it had any inclination to do so. Not that he would be of any help.
 

Al-Buraq

Banned
Sounds like you didn't bother reading the link that I posted and the sources within the link.

Funnily enough, I did. (although not all the links) It doesn't change my thoughts that the premise is nonsensical. (Not the flight to Belarus, or anywhere else for that matter), but that the Iraqi leadership could have had anything of value in the form of knowledge of weapons of mass destruction.
We know now that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction in 2002 and we know that Rumsfeld and his friends also knew that. They certainly had no indigenous technology. The know-how, the equipment, the delivery systems and the raw materials for Iraqi chemical and biological weapons was supplied by the US, Germany, Britain, Italy, France, Austria and others under the benign gaze of---guess who? That same Donald Rumsfeld.
As for the nuclear programme, it virtually died when the Israelis bombed the Osirik reactor in 1981 although they did carry on some research into nuclear technology generally, but it was all "bought-in". What could they sell "Oh!, Here's a list of who supplies calutrons"?
It is interesting to note that most of Iraq's nuclear research and uclear weapon related equipment was supplied from countries that are not actual Nuclear weapons states, but could be in a few months if they wanted to be so, like Brazil, Austria, Italy.
 
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MacCaulay

Banned
We know now that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction in 2002 and we know that Rumsfeld and his friends also knew that.

True.

They certainly had no indigenous technology.

uh...I'm going to have to disagree with you there. I highly doubt there wasn't a single person in Iraq that didn't remember a single thing from Osirak. Do you?
 
I'd say even if Saddam, His family, and the upper level of his government left Iraq and lived in Belarus, the USA would of still go to war, most likely the Bush team would spin the issue into "the government of Iraq has fallen apart, and the WMDs are loose and terrorist will have them if we don't go in"
 

MacCaulay

Banned
I'd say even if Saddam, His family, and the upper level of his government left Iraq and lived in Belarus, the USA would of still go to war, most likely the Bush team would spin the issue into "the government of Iraq has fallen apart, and the WMDs are loose and terrorist will have them if we don't go in"

The funny thing is, they probably would've had more of a believable reason to go in had the government been headless than the way they did in OTL.

hmmm...perhaps a Saddam-less Iraq in the run up to the war might be the best thing for Bush...
 
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