HAUSER v. SULLY

Hauser claims that Sully is off his rocker for suggesting that Saddam and Al Qaeda could ever be in cohoots together, because Al Qaeda is a bunch of religious fanatics and Saddam is a secular meglomaniac. My friend has a short memory. Hussein's "secularism" didn't keep him from calling for a jihad during the Gulf War - and its not cramping his funding of Hamas either. In fact, if Hauser would study his modern Middle East history, he would see a recurring theme - that secular and religious fanatics are more than willing to put aside their differences in the face of a common enemy - the West. What was true in Damascus in 1920 is true in Baghdad in 2002.