All the stuff about Saddam boils down to a mass of propaganda in my view. The truth is Iraq was better off under Saddam Hussein.
True, I agree Saddam had a very poor record on human rights but many Arabs still looked up to him as a leader who would stand up for certain Arab rights.
They made a big meal about the gassing of the Kurds but the situation was exaggerated in order to win support for the war. It smacks of the lies that were told about how Saddam's soldiers were supposed to have entered a Kuwait hospital and pulled babies from incubators. A classic example of spin.
Ask yourself this question: How many Iraqis has Bush and his cronies killed over the last decade? Thousands according to ABC News and the BBC.
Prior to 9/11, Iraqis had been denied essential medication to supply hospitals for many years. Arabs were shown images of dying children in Baghdad hospitals since Bush and his colleagues were claiming medicines could be used to make chemical weapons and the much vamped "weapons of mass destruction."
None of that justified the 9/11 attacks by any means. Mass murder is wrong whoever endorses it. But I think sanctions fueled the radicals who joined the cause of Al Quaida.
However, it's been getting worse. Something like 500,000 children alone have died from Bush's war and the images of burnt children in ill-equipped hospitals continue to be broadcast worldwide. Add to that the images of Iraqi prisoners being abused for kicks, the 14,000 wounded American soldiers who were duped into combat and almost 2000 killled, and you have a very shaky foreign policy.
My view is if Saddam is to be tried in a court of law, let's see the pioneers of the war in Iraq go on trial with him, including Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld.
This is how I see it and this view, that used to be a minority opinion, is becoming more widespread.
I do take your point about Saddam's regime being far from ideal but the alternative seems worse the way the situation is developing for the average Iraqi.
True, I agree Saddam had a very poor record on human rights but many Arabs still looked up to him as a leader who would stand up for certain Arab rights.
They made a big meal about the gassing of the Kurds but the situation was exaggerated in order to win support for the war. It smacks of the lies that were told about how Saddam's soldiers were supposed to have entered a Kuwait hospital and pulled babies from incubators. A classic example of spin.
Ask yourself this question: How many Iraqis has Bush and his cronies killed over the last decade? Thousands according to ABC News and the BBC.
Prior to 9/11, Iraqis had been denied essential medication to supply hospitals for many years. Arabs were shown images of dying children in Baghdad hospitals since Bush and his colleagues were claiming medicines could be used to make chemical weapons and the much vamped "weapons of mass destruction."
None of that justified the 9/11 attacks by any means. Mass murder is wrong whoever endorses it. But I think sanctions fueled the radicals who joined the cause of Al Quaida.
However, it's been getting worse. Something like 500,000 children alone have died from Bush's war and the images of burnt children in ill-equipped hospitals continue to be broadcast worldwide. Add to that the images of Iraqi prisoners being abused for kicks, the 14,000 wounded American soldiers who were duped into combat and almost 2000 killled, and you have a very shaky foreign policy.
My view is if Saddam is to be tried in a court of law, let's see the pioneers of the war in Iraq go on trial with him, including Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld.
This is how I see it and this view, that used to be a minority opinion, is becoming more widespread.
I do take your point about Saddam's regime being far from ideal but the alternative seems worse the way the situation is developing for the average Iraqi.
wolfix said:Wouldn't gassing the Kurds be considered a slight "ethnic conflict?" Give the people of Iraq some credit..... They have been concious of their ethnic diversity for many years. Saddam just ruled in such a way that "infighting" was considered a capitol crime.