Saddam loved his defense technology -- the wackier, the better. Take "Baby Babylon," for instance: "an artillery piece so powerful that it could not only shell his enemies in Tel Aviv and Tehran but also fire a projectile into orbit," the Times reports.
I would say that Saddams regime was not a model of rationality, said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based organization that has studied Mr. Husseins weaponry. He did in some respects share Hitlers fascination with wonder weapons...
Mr. Husseins scientists could not satisfy his craving for wonder weaponry, although they tried often enough.
There was a reported program to create a rail gun, in which electromagnetic pulses would accelerate a projectile to high speeds, research on elaborate multistage rockets and re-entry vehicles, and, before 1991, endless tinkering with weird biological agents. None of it produced anything particularly useful...
Perhaps strangest of all were little Russian armored reconnaissance ground vehicles, somehow evoking Jetsons-style spaceships, made for just one occupant.
And let's not forget the blinding lasers or the attempted anti-satellite weapons, either.
(Big ups: Xeni)
