> You say there was some choice made between Ba'athist
> fascism and Islamic theocracy? I doubt the
> historical
> accuracy of this but let's accept it for the sake of
> argument. Were there only two such choices?
As I recall, Saddam was very much under the impression that his war against Iran was a war against Islamic fundamentalism (now known as Islamofascism, thanks to Dr. Hitchens). Both the U.S. and Arab elites certainly did not disabuse him of this notion. Maybe in this limited regard, Luke is correct, though there's slim indication that I can see that an Islamofascist regime or even an Islamic regime would have taken root in Iraq.
Note though that after Saddam fought the ur-War on Terror, his smiling friends refused to forgive his war debts. The invasion of Kuwait followed thereafter.
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