Here's some explosive information about the then, upcoming Iraq war:
Saddam Hussein was prepared to take $1 billion and go into exile before the Iraq war, according to a transcript of talks between U.S. President George W. Bush and an ally, Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday.
"The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction," Bush was quoted as saying at the meeting one month before the U.S.-led invasion.
Asked by Aznar whether Saddam could really leave, Bush replied: "Yes, that possibility exists. Or he might even be assassinated."
Take that in for a minute. Saddam was willing to take a bribe of $1 billion dollars and leave the country.
However, there's a LOT of problems with that.
First off, what do you suppose he would do with that $1 billion dollars? He could have easily funded more Palestinian suicide bombers and wreaked all sorts of havoc on the region.
Can you see how the American public would have reacted? "Bush gives $1 billion to get rid of Saddam". He would have used that as a major propaganda item as well. "The American's had to buy their way out, they know they can't take me!"
But, there's a second problem here. Something no one noticed. "All the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction".
Is that an admission from Saddam that he indeed had WMD's? Or was it a ruse to keep up the appearance that he had WMD's? Or was it to play a giant game of poker and he was bluffing?
With Saddam dead, we'll never know, but now that we've spend almost 600x as much as the bribe Saddam wanted, it can appear to be an attractive offer to some, but it could very well have been disastrous to do so.
Travis
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