Republicans Turn Their Back On Another Friend

[PapiQueRico]

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/handshake300.jpg
Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983
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Iraq: Declassified Documents of U.S. Support for Hussein

http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/zforum/03/sp_world_battle022703.htm
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A visibly shaken Saddam Hussein was found guilty of crimes against humanity on Sunday and sentenced to hang by the U.S.-sponsored court that has been trying him in Baghdad for the past year.

More of the story below:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&u=/nm/20061105/ts_nm/iraq_dc_20

[chefmike]

One War Criminal Down, Three to Go


Regardless of whether the "fix" was in - both in its predetermined outcome or its timing (just two days before Americans go to the polls) -- justice prevailed today in, of all places, Iraq, when a court convicted Saddam Hussein of crimes against humanity for the revenge killings of 148 people in the Shiite city of Dujail in 1982.


As reported by Hamza Hendawi of the Associated Press, "The trial brought Saddam and his co-defendants before their accusers in what was one of the most highly publicized and heavily reported trials of its kind since the Nuremberg tribunals for members of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime and its slaughter of 6 million Jews in the World War II Holocaust."

Yet, few Americans probably know that Article 6 of the Nuremberg Tribunal's Charter listed "Crimes against Peace; namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging war of aggression" as its first and foremost crime. Count Two indicted the Nazis for actual crimes against peace. Count Three indicted them for "War Crimes," including the ill treatment of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners of war (such as have occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in our recent past). "Crimes Against Humanity" was relegated to Count Four.

Thus, notwithstanding the justice meted out to Saddam today, Americans have at least two reasons to reflect while celebrating the outcome: (1) Saddam now has been convicted for crimes that occurred in 1982, just a year before Donald Rumsfeld, acting as an envoy for President Reagan, met and shook hands with him on December 20, 1983. Thus, Americans might ponder how it was that the Reagan administration found it suitable to offer military assistance to such an "evil" criminal.

(2) Much available evidence suggests that the Bush administration planned and prepared the initiation and waging of a war of aggression - the first and foremost crime spelled out in Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter - while "fixing" the intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and ties to al Qaeda's terrorists, in order to deceive both the American people and the U.S. Congress into supporting its illegal, immoral war.

Thus, if justice can be done in war-torn Iraq, it certainly must be done in the great United States of America (and perhaps in lapdog Tony Blair's Great Britain as well). But justice certainly won't be done, so long as Republicans remain in control of Congress.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walter-c-uhler/saddams-conviction-one-_b_33342.html

Ah come on.

Bring an indictment already or shut the fuck up.

Noone is worried about a bunch of punks proposing this bullshit. LMAO

I can confidently tell you punks..... bring it!

Bring it or shut the fuck up. :lol:

[guyone]

C'mon Chef. You know that at that time Iran was totally out of control. They had just released our hostages 2 years previous and Saddam was a fierce enemy. Thus we employed the enemy of our enemy is our friend routine. Just like the democrats look at Al Qaeda as being their friends.

"The enemy of George Bush is our friend thus Al Qaeda is our friend..."

Nes pa?

[francisfkudrow]

As they say, "Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." We assisted Afghanistan in the 80's against the Russians, and the Afghanis turned on us. We assisted Iraq in the 80's and they turned on us too. Whenever we muck around in the Middle East, it comes back around to haunt us.

Yeah, Iran was a serious problem back then (not that it isn't a problem now) so, progressive as I am, I don't really blame Reagan/Rumsfeld for backing Iraq. They just chose to look at the bright side of the Iraqi regime and ignore the flaws for tactical reasons.

Of course, we as a country really need to learn that no deed (good or bad) in the Middle East goes unpunished and stop messing around there.

That having been said, we made our bed in Iraq and now we sadly have to sleep in it, possibly forever, to prop up some semblance of order and keep the country from devolving into an ultraviolent, ultratheocratic nemesis of the United States. But if we should ever manage to escape from Iraq, we should learn the lessons of history and stop trying to manipulate the Middle East.

And as for guyone's absurd notion that liberals love Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda (specifically the fear thereof) helped the G.O.P. win election after election following 9/11. Before the 2006 elections, it could very fairly be argued that the terrorists had indeed won, because they had gotten religious extremists (Christian extremists in this case) elected.

Now I have more hope for our nation that we have elected a more progressive Congress, but both sides of the aisle still need to be mindful of history, so that it doesn't repeat itself.

Of course, we as a country really need to learn that no deed (good or bad) in the Middle East goes unpunished and stop messing around there.

Well said, but in the age of nuclear dirt, we can't afford this isolationist approach. Let me tell you something very significant. If we don't pull that part of the world from the grips of those who strap bombs to themselves in Jerusalem, then those same people will eventually be strapping NUKES to themselves in New York. Region change is the only thing that is going to save our asses and this world and this life.


That having been said, we made our bed in Iraq and now we sadly have to sleep in it, possibly forever, to prop up some semblance of order and keep the country from devolving into an ultraviolent, ultratheocratic nemesis of the United States. But if we should ever manage to escape from Iraq, we should learn the lessons of history and stop trying to manipulate the Middle East.

I know CNN and CBS are preaching the melancholy, but we are winning in Iraq.

[North_of_60]

You are definitely a paranoid. You need serious help.

It's an impossible task to win this kind of war. US is loosing all the way. The UK are leaving like rats. Face reality and listen to the great Jacques :

"You can't establish democracy with armoured tank" - Jacques Chirac(in a deep french tone)

[pnwguy24]

Bwahahaha. Us winning in Iraq is as true a statement as the Neo-Cons supporting the troops over at walter reed medical. :roll:

You are definitely a paranoid. You need serious help.

It's an impossible task to win this kind of war. US is loosing all the way. The UK are leaving like rats. Face reality and listen to the great Jacques :

"You can't establish democracy with armoured tank" - Jacques Chirac(in a deep french tone)

Yeah we're winning in Iraq.

[North_of_60]

...loosing.

I normally don't like to point out misspellings, but yours is egregiously and notoriously aweful. I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just using the wrong form. The word is "losing" not "loosing".

I figured you'd get it right since you libtards are always seeking to be dominated.

And we're winning.

[North_of_60]

yours is egregiously and notoriously aweful

Aweful, yes. Got me there.

But you're still losing the war in Irak. You'll get yourself out of the quagmire crawling to the UN for some legitimacy.

Actually, the UN is why we had to invade. If the UN would enforce it's own shit, if Bill Clinton had pushed the UN to enforce, this war would be unnecessary.

[North_of_60]

This war was not necessary. This is what the US citizens are understanding more and more. The neocons have lied to them and their president. The only way to get out of Irak decently would be under UN legitimacy.

You can try and sell that lie all you want.

[North_of_60]

My pleasure...