[JohnGalt]

[JohnGalt]

Interesting read in light of our exchange last week. A few people, besides you and me anyway, are thinking about this sort of stuff.

[KantianBurke]

aww my eyes! Format man! :>

[lelio]

On Aug. 1, the Bush 41 administration approved the sale of advanced data-transmission devices to Iraq

Anyone know what those were?

[Shermy]

Next day, Miss Glaspie left Iraq to pick up her mother in London and begin a long planned home leave.

And her second in command, Joseph Wilson, took over.

You know, Nigergate, Yellowcakegate, Kerry advisor. The guy who was married to a French diplomat at the time. The guy who was dining with Saddam's major French arms buyer on the eve of the Kuwait invasion.

I wonder if Saddam asked for clarification about Glaspie from Wilson...

[cdrw]

If the trial is handled carefully it will not be Saddam vs the US but Saddam vs the Iraqi people. Though Saddam and his team may try to embarrass as many as possible, the actions of US agricultural negotiators are irrelevant to the circumstances and facts regarding such issues as Saddam gassing his own population ... It will be fodder for all those who have been trying to turn everything back on us but I don't think we ever claimed to be unaware of what Saddam was doing including the torture and so forth. The whole world knew that stuff was going on. It will be another thing entirely to try to pin any responsibility on us for Saddams criminal actions unless there is evidence that we commissioned those acts directly.

I'm sure we did quite a few things in turning our enemies against each other that we may now be embarrassed about. Shoot - we stood back and watched as Saddam butchered the uprising we inspired at the end of Gulf I and the Iraqis are very well aware of this but it did not prevent them from praising us for reversing the wrongs of the past. I suppose Saddam may take some consolation in these facts as they walk him to the gallows. And I have no doubt that the left / democrats will try to spin this whole thing as Republicans are Nazi's / blood for oil .....

[moni kerr]

But the US was not "hoping Saddam would prevail over Iran". The Carter Admin quietly encouraged Saddam to invade Iran. The Iranians it was believed would then turn to the US to replenish their stocks of weapons and spares. Unfortunately for Carter, the Vietnamese had large stocks of US weapons and spares which they were more than willing to sell or trade for oil.

In fact the Reagan Admin pursued a policy which was designed to ecourage a protracted and costly stalemate between the two sides (intelligence data was also being passed to Iran and Israel was selling weapons to Iran). Rumsfeld's visit to Saddam was to pave the way for a normalization of relations (the embassy in Baghdad was reopened a few months later). Starting in 1985, the US began secret 'arms for hostages' deals with the Iranians which then morphed into an attempt at diplomatic rapproachment. Thus the Iran-Contra scandal was born.