Look, it's clear that Saddam is now headed for the chopping block, and nobody is going to shed a tear when he goes - except maybe Jacques Chirac. However, I wish people who are in favor of the war would plz stop mentioning the fact that Saddam gassed his own people as one of the reasons he must stopped.
As has already been mentioned, it was the US who supplied Saddam with his own little Acme bio-chemical weapons of mass destruction starter kit back in the 1980s. Back then Iraq was at war with Iran, the mortal enemy of the US who had humiliated for many longs months during the Tehran US embassy saga. Back then Saddam was a "good guy". The surrounding Sunni Arab nations regarded Iraq as a bulwark against Iranian Shia exapansionism, whilst Western countries also thought of Saddam as the shield holding back what they regarded as a terrorist Iranian regime.
Most of the incidents involving Saddam gassing his own people occured in the north-east of the country. It was generally directed at villages on the Iraqi side of the border that had been overrun by Iranian forces. Saddam was entirely willing to wipe out both the Iranians and his own people - the latter in particular because he suspected them of being pro-Iranian.
When these horrific events were occuring, the West, and in particular the US, said absolutely *NOTHING*. No damning criticism, no demands that Saddam stop these atrocities. Now that he's enemy number 1, it's a totally different matter, of course. Don't make me sick . The guy is a scum-bag and he deserves to die, so don't use lame-ass excuses for why he needs to be liquidated. There are enough reasons to get rid of him without resorting to hypocritical reasoning. The fact he killed a million Iranians is being touted as one those reasons. Jeez, back in the 1980s we were pattin' him on the back for every Iranian body-bag being shipped back to Tehran. Now he's a bloody-thirsty tyrant.
Let's just get this thing over and done with. He needs to go, and the Iraqi people need to be freed, but let's not get righteous about how the West handled Saddam in the past. We should be hiding our heads in shame, not raising them with pride.
Let's not forget George Bush Snr's call to the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam and that the US would support them. The Iraqi people listened and they obeyed, but as the fighting got hot, the US suddenly decided it wasn't going to help the Iraqi people after all. Are you guys old enough to remember over 1 million Kurd refugees camped on the side of a mountain in northern Iraq trying to escape from Saddam's forces. Thousands dided as the poor wretches had to survive freezing temperatures with nothing more than plastic sheeting supplied by aid organisations. Let's not even talk about the countless thousands of Shia who were butchered as revenge for their uprising in the south. Oh, yeah America, be proud.
If you think I'm picking on the Republicans, Slick Willie Clinton pulled the same stunt in 1995. Rise up, oh Iraqi people, and we will help you to shed your chains and shackles. The result? The Iraqi people were stabbed in the back a second time.
The fact is the US and the West in general support these despotic Arab regimes like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Kuwait et al and the citizens of these countries are all too aware of the fact. To say they are totally disillusioned would be a major understatement. If you travelled to the middle-east in the 1960's you would have found some of the most pro-American people in the world. They bought that whole truth, justice and liberty thang hook, line, and sinker. In return we supported and bribed their undemocratic, blood-thirsty governments to insure their loyalty, screwing these poor people in the process. Gee, and we scratch our heads as to why so many of them dislike or are at least suspicious of us.
Let's just kill this bastard, free the Iraqi people and keep our mouths shut. There's no reason why we should be pattin' ourselves on the back over how righteous and mighty we are. We should be hanging our heads in shame that it's taken this long to get the job done...
