Quote:
Originally posted by JeremySF
THE WEST SUPPORTED SADDAM AND IT WAS A MISTAKE!!
And the French and Germans supplied Iraq with more weapons than the U.S. Shit, the French sold them a nuclear reactor.
You have this one-sided view that only America is responsible for everything that's wrong. There's no culpability anywhere else. At least the U.S. and Britain have the spine to correct their mistakes while France and Germany (who supplied more shit to the Iraqis) stand on the sideline.
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I agree that other western countries supplied Iraq. I never said that it was only the US who supplied him. I concentrate on the US side of things because it is the US that demonstrates greater hypocracy by propping up dictators around the world only to blast them down later when it is convenient. Saddam is hardly the first. The US strategy, and it is a strategy, is totally Orwellian. Wether it is Manuel Noriega (who was admitted to be on the CIA payroll) or the Taliban (created and financed by the US) or Saddam or dozens of other petty dictators, the strategy is always the same:
1 - First arm said dictator AND his enemies to the teeth. Arming both sides of every conflict ensures maximum profits to the BUSINESS OF WAR. We armed both Iraq AND Iran during their war, so the argument put forth by the major media that we "sided" with Iraq during that conlflict for geopolitical reasons does not wash.
2- Once the dictator is armed to the teeth and acts even slightly "independent" of US will, launch a war against him, either directly or by proxy, to oust him.
The case of Saddam is unique since he is also sitting on top of the second largest oil reserves on the planet and his country is strategically located in the middle east as a perfect staging ground for future invasions.
The argument put forth by such media as the Altantic Monthly (and others) that there are humanitarian reasons for invading Iraq also does not wash. There are far more repressive regimes out there in the world that treat their people far worse than Saddam treats Iraqis. From Nigeria to the Congo to Cambodia to Libya - the list is enormous. The US has always supported the most brutal dictators of all time, from the Shah or Iran to Ferdinando Marcos to Baby Doc Duvalier to Saddam and beyond. The US does not give a shit about how other people are treated by their regimes - never has and never will. US Politicians will use that red herring as an argument because they know it moves the American people (who generally DO have their hearts in the right place).
The UN estimates that as many as 500,000 Iraqi civlians will die as a result of Gulf War II. Another 10 million will be displaced and put at severe risk. Whoohoo! Yeah. Let's "liberate" them. If the west did not support and prop up these petty dictators in the first place, no one would need liberating.