[SauronOfMordor]

Saddam Hussein was a terrible dictator, but he was an "equal opportunity" dictator... if anything, he had an "affirmative action" program for Christians. Saddam maintained power mostly by keeping the various tribal and religious factions out of government... which let the Christians thrive in that society.

Possibly for reasons similar to why Medieval nobles would put Jews into many court positions: you don't want to hand power over to anybody who could have ambitions for the top job. A Christian COULD NOT become ruler of a Muslim country, so they would not be a worry to Saddam

[rpgdfmx]

Tarik Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister, is a Christian in a top job. I think what we all overlooked was that Saddam was a SECULAR dictator who modelled himself on Stalin. This may start a fecal tsunami, but the Osama-Saddam links never were credible to me for that reason. Many countries have had similar dictators -- who focused on modernization at the expense of ethnic and religious loyalties -- who are today seen as unfortunate, but necessary, players in their country's history: Ataturk in Turkey, Porfirio Diaz in Mexico, Stalin, etc.

I'm sorry to say it looks as if we went into this war without even looking up Iraq in an encyclopedia.