Saddam's Downfall- When he underestimated the English-speaking World

The tsunami that hit Taiwan has screwed up all Internet connections apparently for the next three weeks here in Asia, but while I've the day off I should try to share an article by Andrew Roberts writing in today's Independent where he compares Saddam with Stalin, suggesting in the end Stalin's key to survival was paying heed to Churchill's call at Fulton for a determined stand by English-speaking countries.

The history of the English-speaking peoples since 1900 is so replete with the phenomenon of dictators underestimating the resolve of American and British leaders that Saddam had no excuse. He had endless examples from the past - from Paul Kruger to the Kaiser, from Adolf Hitler to Mossadeq to General Galtieri - of strong men who took it for granted that the English-speaking powers could be mocked indefinitely, to no effect.

He ends his analysis with these words:

Saddam was not destroyed because he was a monster - there are plenty of those in the world, from Robert Mugabe to Kim Il-Sung - but because he was a monster who failed to learn an obvious lesson from history: that the English-speaking peoples can be pushed very, very far, but no further.