I recently came across an interesting statement that the former Iraqi vice president Taha Ramadan made in 2002: “The American president should specify a group, and we will specify a group and choose neutral ground with Kofi Annan as referee and use one weapon with a president against a president, a vice-president against a vice-president, and a minister against a minister in a duel.”
The statement surely resonated with many people around the world because whenever leaders of any individual country decide to go to war it isn’t they who lead the charge on the frontline. Of course as logical as the statement was (as well as absurd in the context of modern society) the ironic fact is when Hussein’s Iraq itself had disputes with other countries no such offers were made to the leaders of those nations (as noted by then white house spokesman Ari Fleischer), and wars were fought, and people suffered.