Saddam's aborted plea bargain: how the A-to-Z rule set on processing politically bankrupt states could have worked in Iraq

■"Arab League Plan for Hussein Exile Went Sour, Arab Leader Says," by Hassan M. Fattah, New York Times, 2 November 2005, p. A12.

Fascinating story from Abu Dhabi crown prince about how the Gulf states came this close to actually plea-bargaining Saddam out of power just before the war. The hold up? Arab leaders couldn't reach a consensus fast enough.

What was the offer? Saddam goes into exile for amnesty and protection from trial.

When I talk that A-to-Z rule set on processing politically bankrupt states in BFA, I argue that most of these rogues can be negotiated out of power, or just scared out of power like Liberia's Charles Taylor, once he was indicted by the Sierra Leone war crimes tribunal. Think of the Iraq we could have had today under those circumstances.

Then think of a post-Kim Korean peninsula Ö