The tipping point

A more important factor, however, will be that the environment in which the attackers have operated will become substantially less hospitable to them and their efforts to kill allied forces, international relief workers and Iraqis who have cooperated in Coalition efforts to secure and rebuild their country. It is hard to overstate the traumatizing effect the prospect of Saddams return has had on a deeply scarred people. In his absence, there is no reason to accommodate his henchmen and every reason to work with others who oppose them.

Foreign fighters may be another matter. Iran, Saudi Arabia and Syria all have their reasons for wanting to thwart the experiment in an Arab democracy President Bush is helping Free Iraqis to forge. By definition, however, such foreigners will have an even harder time operating unseen among the people of Iraq than will the former regime loyalists. The United States must help the Iraqis to root out and neutralize these predominantly radical Muslim (or Islamist) forces by helping to secure Iraqs borders and to dissuade neighboring countries from allowing them to be penetrated.

It may be that this new attitude reflects the same sort of tipping point-calculation that is at work among Iraqis. Or perhaps it is evidence of something else: A renewed concern that interrogations of Saddam Hussein himself, or of subordinates who need no longer fear his retribution, will disclose embarrassing new evidence of foreign governments complicity in propping up the tyrrant.

Former deputy premier Tariq Aziz has already reportedly blabbed that the French and Russians had promised Saddam they would never let the UN do anything to remove him from power. Others have revealed efforts made by Communist China in the run-up to the war to enhance Iraqs air defense systems, the better to kill American and British airmen patrolling the no-fly zones. One can only imagine the discomfiture in certain capitals over the skeletons that remain in Saddams closet involving corrupt and/or dangerous military, financial, oil and other transactions.

Another factor is the prospect that what comes out next will only further vindicate George Bush and Tony Blair and add to the ignominy of those who opposed the liberation of Iraq. For example, the Sunday Telegraph of London reported on December 14, that Iraqi authorities have discovered documentary proof that Mohammed Atta, the al-Qaeda mastermind of the September 11 attacks against the U.S., was trained in Baghdad by Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist.

All of these considerations should help former Secretary of State James Bakers efforts to induce those who lent Saddam Hussein billions for weapons purchases and other purposes relieve the Iraqi people of his damning legacy of debt.