The failed Zeman strategy
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.
|