Margaret just said "Reagan befriended Saddam to prevent an Islamic

[Swede]

theocracy,which is probably the outcome of these elections." I never thought of that before.

Margaret Carlson on CNN.

[DireStrike]

1. Margaret?

He probably also wanted to keep the evil communists out.

[aquart]

2. Which is how we know

That Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 and al qaeda. BECAUSE HE WAS SECULAR.

[FreakinDJ]

3. Reagan befriended Saddam to sell weapons

Weapons of Mass Destruction I might add

He also gave him weapons to use against Iran.

[teryang]

5. Right - Rush supported Saddam, too.

"And now the liberals want to stop President Reagan from selling chemical warfare agents and military equipment to Saddam Hussein, and why? Because Saddam 'allegedly' gassed a few Kurds in his own country. Mark my words. All of this talk of Saddam Hussein being a 'war criminal' or 'committing crimes against humanity' is the same old thing. LIBERAL HATE SPEECH! And speaking of poison gas . . . I SAY WE ROUND UP ALL THE DRUG ADDICTS AND GAS THEM." - Rush (oxycontin) Limbaugh, Nov. 3, 1988

From www.liberalslant.com

[Jane Austin]

6. Isn't this quote debunked at Snopes.com?

n/t

[teryang]

13. Apparently so..

Excuse me...it's the thought that counts.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

9. He also gave him weapons to use against Iran.

should there be any sort of penalty for the complete and total hypocrisy the U.S. govt has demonstrated over the years?? One would think so.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

4. Margaret's right

Saddam was going to be our buffer against the Ayatollah Khomeini & Islamic theocracy. As a previous poster stated, Saddam ran a secular dictatorship & outlawed the extreme froms of Islam.

[peacetalksforall]

7. Outlawed extreme forms of Islam? Is this true? This is a bombshell in

my understanding of PNAC motivations and propaganda. By outlawed - does that mean it was written in law? I know that it appeared that radicalism (other than his) was contained - but was it written in ink?

This means we were double lied to!

We took down someone who had extreme radicalism contained and threw away the law and then turn around a spread all the lies we are now very familiar with.

I say - bring Saddam back.

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

11. I think it was written, but to be honest

I'm not 100% sure. I do know that after the fall of Baghdad (major combat operations over!) many Iraqi males reenacted a religious pilgrimage where Muslim males walk while beating their backs with a rope. God, my brain has absolutely gone to mush. I can't think of what it's called & I can't even think of the word to describe that type of event except 'pilgrimage' & that's not right. Oh well. Another senior moment. Anywhoo, Saddam had always forbidden it & the US allowed it.

[wishlist]

8. Yes, back then Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini was the boogeyman, not Saddam

25 years ago we were worried when Ayatollah Khomeini rose to power in Iran and it was feared that he would incite a takeover in Iraq by anti-Western fundamentalists. We supported Saddam since he was considered a preferable more pro-Western leader who could control various conflicting factions and serve as a counterbalance against the fundamentalist Islamists.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

10. fundamentalist Islamists.

"terrorist". Or is the enemy anyone who would nationalize a country's own natural resources and ensure more than a 2 or 3 percent return to the people. I often wonder about this.

[leesa]

12. Read 'Confessions of a Economic Hit Man" to see why Reagan befriended

Saddam. It was to make him an offer he couldn't refuse and to indebt him to corporate America forever. He didn't go for it...just like the Taliban.