Will's Good Idea for the Week of 11/22/20

We've been doing lots of research for World War 1990: Saddam's War. We've got two good books, one on the Iran-Iraq War, one about Iraq at the time. We have a third book about Saddam's Iraq, but  it's academic gobbledygook. There's a fourth book on the war, and we'll be saving it for a refresher. Finding a book about the Iraqi side during Desert Storm would be useful.

Saddam's Iraq was like a communist state, but with oil revenues bringing up everyone's standard of living. Saddam's Ba'atthism was Pan-Arab Socialism, and he sought to unite the Arab world under his leadership. Saddam had big plans.

Remember that during the events of Castro's Folly, Saddam invades Kuwait and the West can't do anything about it. In Saddam's War he attacks Iran to seize the Shat al Arab and oil rich Khuzestan. There's a furious row in Washington over the new Iran-Iraq war and the carriers are dispatched. We'll see.

It is entirely possible that by the year 2000 Saddam controls Kuwait, Khuzestan and is the undisputed leader of the Arab World. Saudi Arabia has either gone along with the new order or Saddam has taken their oilfields as well. That might be a step too far for the US, but we'll be extremely war weary and neo-isolationist.

In this world there's no peace-process. Heck, if Saddam is taking advantage of all the World War Three chaos, why not Israel? Maybe the Israeli's settle scores with Arafat and clear out Lebanon. Maybe that's what they decide to do during Saddam's War? Hmmmmm. By 1992 we may assume that Yitzak Rabin is the PM, but is he PM in 2000? Arial Sharon, the greatest Jew since Charlton Heston? Netanyahu? Sharon as PM with Bibi as his foreign minister? The two hated each other's guts in real life. This would be a great opportunity to slam the Quisling Shimon Peres, that alone could make this novel worth while.

A colossal war with Israel could be interesting and in the offing.