Peter Arnett makes mischief

If you go here, you'll find an AFP (a French news organization) article in which fired CNN reporter Peter Arnett claims that Uday Hussein, Saddam's son, was planning on overthrowing his father, and was stopped only because U.S. troops got there first. The article notes that Uday was was "ruthless," but gives no details. Instead, the real meat is this:

According to Arnett, the oldest son of the Iraqi dictator had long been chafing under his father's iron fisted rule and blamed his father for the punishing international sanctions on the country. "Though it has not been reported until now, Uday Hussein was the biggest proponent of regime change inside Iraq," Arnett wrote. "During the previous 10 years, he had slowly assembled the elements of power -- military, military and political management -- designed to overthrow his tyrannical father," said the reporter who was in Baghdad as US troops approached following the launch of the March 19, 2003 US-led attack.

In other words, Arnett and the AFP (did I mention it comes out of France?) make it plain that the U.S. effort in Iraq was wasted -- wasted American lives, wasted American money. According to Arnett and the AFP, if we'd only had a bit more of that patience John Kerry counseled, Uday would have done the job for us. This is stunningly dishonest. Even if one agrees that Uday really was within minutes of carrying off a successful coup (which I strongly doubt), the fact is that he would likely have been even worse than his father. While Saddam reveled in power and would do anything to retain it, reports indicate that Uday was a sadist at a personal level -- someone who gloried in inflicting intense pain on others. Imagining a sadist like that in control of a country that already had a Gestapo-style infrastructure firmly in place is the stuff of nightmares. If ordinary Iraqis were suffering under Hussein, one can only imagine the Mengele-like horrors Uday was planning on inflicting on them.