Nobody wants to admit this: Saddam Hussein would be our ally against ISIS

[calimary]

41. I'll admit it. He was a stabilizing presence in the Middle East.

OKAY - he wasn't perfect. He was an asshole. But he was OUR asshole. And the biggest thing he did, seems to me, was contain Iran.

Iran and Iraq were at war with each other and he was preoccupied with them. And they with him. And while they were so busy being preoccupied with him, they didn't have much time to bother with Israel, or making trouble anywhere else. He was right on their border, and a much more clear-and-present danger and threat to them than anybody else ever was. So he kept them busy, and kept them from stirring things up elsewhere.

And his aim, and equipment, sucked the big one. I remember during Desert Storm how Saddam's scud missiles and the rest of it were thought to be so horrifyingly formidable - at least according to the PR pushed on us all by those wanting war. And his scud missiles never did squat. Never hit whatever target they were aimed toward. Always wound up in some stupid place far afield of where they were aimed. Lot of 'em fell in the desert somewhere and did nothing. His "offensive capabilities" became a joke. And he was "not schooled in the operational art," as Schwarzkopf said. I think a VERY few of them actually landed in Israeli territory. And did very little damage of any significance, as I recall. My memory may be a little faded by now, but I can absolutely remember how I felt as it went on. And those scud missiles got fired, and - blap! A whole lotta nothing. I had to stay home at the AP's L.A. bureau while my radio colleague was sent to Riyadh where the press covering Operations Desert Storm was headquartered. I had to cover part of his beat and part of my own. I remember wondering - what's all the fuss about? What were we huffing and puffing about? Saddam's MUCH-vaunted and MUCH-hyperventilated-about "Revolutionary Guards" were equally Much Ado About Nothing. Those supposedly ruthless and terrifying troops of his folded like so many pieces of paper and dropped their weapons and the loot they stole from Kuwait and ran the other way like stampeding antelope. I kept thinking - "what the hell?"

What an over-sell job. Turned out the ferocious and horribly terrifying reputation of the Saddam forces was, as Mark Twain would say regarding rumors of his own death - "exaggerated."

http://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/48310773463/misquotation-reports-of-my-death-have-been

(Hey! Look what I just learned! A misquote? I had no idea!)