Saddam's biggest miscalculation of his whole career was the attack on Kuwait. He obviously thought that the USA would either tacitly support him or else just look the other way. He was dead wrong. My personal belief is that the USA wanted him to be misled as to their actual intentions, and suckered him in...for much larger geopolitical reasons...but I may be wrong about that. I think they had decided he was no longer useful, but was becoming a dispensable liability, having failed to destroy the Islamic regime in Iran.

If so, it was a pretty clever move by the USA.

Amos - Ha! I'm not that sure about the Egyptian period...can't get a clear handle on it. I couldn't possibly afford to look into all those past lives at Liebenscheiss's rate, but maybe one or two of the more interesting ones...

I always wanted to have a life as a great lover. That would be worth doing, I think. I've was way too serious in most of this life to manage such a role very well.

Being a femme fatale would be pretty cool too, I suppose... They say that if all of Marlene Dietrich's lovers were lined up in a row, it would reach from here to St. Petersburg.

- LH