There were reports of him gassing his own people back in the 1980s and the British and USA carried on arming him cos they wanted him to win the war with Iran. The truth is that the west were happy to fund him when he was a friend of theirs...his abuse of civilians never bothered them in the slightest...he only became a dictator to them when he pissed the west off by invading Kuwait jepodising the oil interests. Well...that's how it looks to me.
If I remember correctly, at some point the Americans were caught selling arms to both sides! Seems like they were happy to have them blowing the crap out of each other!...
That is fair comment. I also believe the war was probably illegal. I have a specific position on the intelligence but don't have the time to go into that now. But surely the present 'version' of Iraq would have happened sooner or later? Yes you can point to the overthrow of Saddam being the catalyst, but I believe that eventually civil war would have broken out by virtue of the religious makeup of the country and the result would have been not unlike the situation we have now. There is a lot of people saying that ISIS et al was the direct result of Western interference, and it was to a certain extent, but with religious differences and the Syrian civil war, I think it would have happened anyway. Not to excuse what we did mind you.
He certainly did use chemical weapons on his own people and once the West confirmed this, they stopped supporting him. This pissed him off so to get his own back he invaded Kuwait to feck up the West's oil supplies and fired a few scud missiles at Israell to try and start an Arab -Israeli war. The last fact seems to have been neglected by the accusers. The West then insisted on weapons inspectors who were obviously getting too close to his chemical weapons stockpiles so he threw them out, destroyed his stockpiles before agreeing to let them back in. Hans Blick said when they went back in Saddam was being far more co-operative than before, not surprising really because he no longer had anything to hide. I guess he hoped that once the weapons inspectors had declared Iraq WMD free and cleared off, he could quickly replenish his stockpiles and probably use them against Isreal, which may have been enough to kick off WW3. He was continuing to develop a long range super gun despite Gerald Bulls assination in 1990, which was probably carried out by the Isreali secret service as an act of self defence. Scuds would have no longer been necessary. Well that's how it look to me. If it is any consolation to the families of the soldiers who died in the conflict, I believe they certainly didn't die in vain, they probably saved the world from the uglyist war this world has ever seen.
Iraq 2003 was definitely a case of "sins of the father visited upon the son" for W Bush. Al Qaeda in Afghanistan became the most tenuous of links to Saddam Hussein. As for the WMD stuff, was the "dodgy dossier" not called into question by people such as David Kelly, who it turned out was correct because as part of his day job (of which he was very good at) he and his peers knew a lot more about Iraqs' capabilities than Mr "45 minutes" could hope to know in a lifetime. Little good as come out of this apart from perhaps the current "special relationship" . The MPs vote on Syria showed the USA that the UK is no longer the rubber-stamper of USA foreign military antics.
Yes, I think he carried the can for covering it up. Wasn't it Reagan's way of directing funds to the contras in South America? Through the Saudis, I believe.
Saddam attacked Kuwait over a debt that they wouldn't let him off, which Iraq picked up during the war with Iran. That and some disputes over oil drilling. The Americans gave him the impression that they didn't give a **** if he invaded, rather stupidly. That's the public reasoning for the whole thing, anyway. It's been suggested that Saddam trading oil in Euros instead of dollars wasn't very popular, though. No idea if this is true.
Gove's backstabbing has failed to even get him onto the ballot, as he's lost out to the two Thatched clones. May will face off against Leadsom, who's furiously backpedaling on her position on gay marriage. Between that and her lying about her CV, I think May will walk it.
What a fantastic choice that is: an incompetent liar with a long list of policies that violate worker's rights...or an incompetent liar with a long list policies that violate worker's rights ...but we shouldn't complain because a bunch of easily-led Little Englanders decided we'd be better off if they voted out of a Union that enforced basic worker's rights!
Donald Trump vs Hillary Clinton Theresa May vs Andrea Leadsome Why not go the whole hog and a ballot giving us the choice of Getting Fisted by a Polar Bear vs Getting Fisted by a Grizzly Bear? It's a marginal improvement.
Which method of execution would you prefer? Utah have reinstated the firing squad, if that's your preference.
Guns,guns,guns!America is busy shooting each other and it doesn't matter if it's family or any one. I suppose the NRA must have a lot of money tied up in gun making and selling. My mates at work used to refer to gun toting Americans as bomb-happy-bastards.I thought at the time (in the 70's) that was a bit extreme,but now.......
Brexit followed by Chilcott. ..... not proud moments in history for the UK!! But then you hear Ian Hislop putting all our so-called leaders to shame on QT and hope is rekindled!!! #ianhislopforpm (Actually found myself agreeing with George Galloway at times too..... ) http://www.snappytv.com/tc/2319929/1176097 .
Little Englanders spend forty years whinging about losing a vote to join the EU in the first place, yet they expect people who voted Remain to shut up about it as soon as the votes are in. Sounds about right...
Why was membership of EU put to the vote in a referendum? This is surely a decision for government given the complex economic issues it raises, not to mention the social implications. Public opinion isn't a yardstick for what's right economically, socially or politically. There are some things which should never be put to a public vote. Should we be taxed? Should beer be free? Should *****philes be castrated, then brutally slaughtered? The Brexit vote is of that ilk.
