In the heat of battle, too much victory may be hard to imagine, but the leaders of the coalition arrayed against Iraq should remember Versailles. By imposing an excess of defeat on Germany in 1919, the winners inadvertently stirred resentment among the losers that led to political extremism and eventually to another war.
Many Arabs and, more generally, many Muslims identify with Saddam Hussein precisely because he is losing on what they see as a heroic, even mythic scale. For them, his plight is a symbol of their own victimization by the rich and powerful nations of the world. No matter...
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