Originally posted by Siaf__csf
Habu what if the US wouldn't have supported Saddam in his fight with Iran and the Iranians would have invaded Iraq and freeing Iraq from the evil man in the process? If Saddam was so nasty, it should have been logical to let him be crushed by the way larger enemy.
Ever thought of that option?
Would that be a fundamentally worse situation to what you have there now?
Yes I did. The reality is that people change and so do countries. The bellybutton kicking stalemate war with Iraq showed the radical clerics in Iran that war was not the way to export their revolution nor solve problems with its neighbors. They are mellower for the experience.
Saddam hated the Iranians and the US feared the repercussions of the radical Islamic government after the revolution. When the "students" took over the US embassy after the revolution they set the tone for the new governments relationship with the US. Jimmy Carter lost the election for his inaction against Iran. The thing to remember here is that the US at the time had the power to wipe Iran off the map a dozen times over both conventionally and of course with nuclear weapons. But they did not. They waited patiently for the hostages to be released then did not retaliate.
At that time Iraq was not the despotic regime that it was even 5 years later. Iraq had very close ties to France and Germany through their business relationships and Saddam even hosted Jacques Chirac a number of times in Iraq.
So at the time the US supporting Iraq over Iran was not surprising at all. The Iraq of those times is not the Iraq of last year and Saddam became much more despotic against his own people after the war. His hate of the west was probably a result of him believing he was set up to invade Kuwait then invaded as the west could not stand to have a strong country in the middle east. This is a great theory if you are a conspiracy guy but just a load of crap in reality.
Finally with regards to how people can change. At that time the most reviled dictator in the world was perhaps Kadaffy in Libya. He was funding terrorist attacks against the US and Britain (Lockerby and the German disco bombing), giving safe refuge to terrorists and probably providing training and logistical support as well.
Now after seeing the light (his actions only brought sanctions and isolation) he has moved to bring his country back into the sphere of responsible countries. Soon the last sanctions against Libya will be lifted and trade relations with the US will be restored.
So your argument as I understand it is really rather pointless. The US did not create Saddam, they only had the courage to correct the situation when no one else would.
I have a question for you. Do you ever wonder what the world today would be like if Israel is not pre-emptively take out the nuclear reactor France was building in Iraq in the 80's?
