Final Word from Monday, December 15, 2003
Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda said the capture of Saddam Hussein is good news, because many Iraqis were afraid he might return one day. Saddam was hiding in the countryside for months but was apparently betrayed by some of his closest confidants. When he first escaped from Baghdad, we joked that he might try the Zeman strategy: Wait at the cottage for the enemy to discredit itself, and then return in triumph to take over the country again. In Iraq, Saddam's loyalists are still causing the coalition trouble, but they've now lost their leader. In the CR, Zeman's own strategy isn't working for him. His closest confidants have turned on him, and his return to power seems more and more unlikely as time goes by. No one's going to try to capture Zeman at his cottage, but he is like Saddam in at least one way. They both believed too much in their own invincibility.