THE WORMED TURNS:

Allies' New Test: Defining Victory: As troops enter Baghdad, the relevant question seems to be how the U.S. and its allies will know when they have won the war. (R. W. APPLE Jr., 4/06/03, NY Times)

How and when, it seems worth asking, will the United States and its allies know they have won the Iraqi war? [...]

If the Iraqi dictator has indeed survived so far, he might well survive a little longer. He might even slip out of the encirclement of Baghdad, making his way through the chaos of defeat to try to mount a long, costly underground campaign against first the American occupiers of the city and then the new Iraqi government there. Certainly he could find shelter in any of several Arab countries hostile to the allied forces' invasion, if not enamored of the old government.

To envision the potential, one need only look a few hundred miles west. The Israelis have "won" every war against Islamic foes, but they are still engaged, after many decades, in combat against shadowy opposition.

In that sense, it is hardly "irrelevant" whether Mr. Hussein lives to fight another day, in another way. As has already been demonstrated in the current war, many Iraqis who believe

Lord love Johnnny Apple--a week ago he was worried about the "quagmire", now he's worried about defining the victory, or even about a Saddam-led guerilla war. Here's the question though: judging from Saddam's leadership in the past two wars, why is it not in our interest to help him escape, transport any of the Middle East's radicals who want to join him, even arm them, so that we can crush all them too? And why wouldn't it be in our interests to help him get to, for example, Syria, so that we can depose the Assad regime while we're in the region in force? Heck, I bet George W. Bush would lend Saddam Air Force One if he wants to fly to North Korea and supply an iron-clad pretext for the next regime change. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 6, 2003 12:19 PM