A key artifact is Saddam's speech delivered in Amman, Jordan, on Feb. 24, 1990. Hallmarked by bombast, Baath Party rhetoric and macho posturing, the speech provided a window into Saddam's strategic assessments prior to the Kuwait invasion. In retrospect, it may have been much more: at the least a rhetorical test of American reaction, at the outside a violent megalomaniac's warning that he was a global leader and intended to go to war to prove it.
Saddam began with the usual "pan-Arab issues," the "loss of Palestine" among them. He then sketched his vision of recent history. After World War II, France and Britain "declined." Two superpowers arose, the U.S. and U.S.S.R., and "global policy continued on the basis of the existence of two poles that balanced in terms of force."
"And suddenly the situation," Saddam said, "changed in a dramatic way." The Cold War ended. Saddam then proceeded with a rambling proposition that America was "fatigued" and would fade, but "throughout the next five years," the U.S. would be unrestricted.
The U.S., in Saddam's view, was strong but weak, without staying power. The speech implied defeating the U.S. entailed scraping the scar of Vietnam and threatening massive U.S. casualties. "Fatigue" and domestic self-recrimination would stall U.S. power. One crucial line stands out: "The big," Saddam said, "does not become big nor does the great earn such a description unless he is in the arena of comparison or fighting with someone else on a different level." (Translation: If a minor-leaguer wants to move up, he takes on the majors.)
Saddam's assessment differs little from the 1950s Soviet threat, "We will bury you." Osama bin Laden's "weak horse, strong horse" metaphor echoes Moscow and Saddam. Sept. 11 was bin Laden's bid to "fight on a different level." At their miserable, daily, functional level, little distinguishes Saddam's Iraq from Iran's mullocracy, a Soviet dictatorship or an al-Qaida caliphate. Whether atheist or theocrat, the routine is murder, corruption and enforced collective ideology. This commonality, and shared anti-Americanism, are two reasons the world's so-called progressive leftists coddle al-Qaida and the Taliban.
World War I's aftermath created the conditions for fascism, communism and, yes, al-Qaida-brand terror religion (Qutbism, is a name for it). In various guises, America has been at war with totalitarianism since at least the 1930s. Aug. 2, 1990, was a dangerous moment in that war. And the war continues.