US encouraged Saddam

VioletAura

Banned
Aug 28, 2003
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Maybe Saddam was a monster, but he was a monster created and nurtured by the good ole USA. A secular oil rich state in a region full of people who hate the "Great Satan", made Saddam the perfect ally.

It was sweet having Saddam as an ally, hell, the US even took him off a list supporting terrorist states.

February 1982 the State Department removed Iraq from its list of states supporting international terrorism. (It had been included several years earlier because of ties with several Palestinian nationalist groups, not Islamicists sharing the worldview of al-Qaeda. Activism by Iraq's main Shiite Islamicist opposition group, al-Dawa, was a major factor precipitating the war -- stirred by Iran's Islamic revolution, its endeavors included the attempted assassination of Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz.)

The US after condemning Iraq for use of chemicals decides to sell them helicopters...
Although official U.S. policy still barred the export of U.S. military equipment to Iraq, some was evidently provided on a "don't ask - don't tell" basis. In April 1984, the Baghdad interests section asked to be kept apprised of Bell Helicopter Textron's negotiations to sell helicopters to Iraq, which were not to be "in any way configured for military use"

Source

Those would come in handy right after the Gulf War. ;)
Oh, yeah the Gulf war... wtf was Saddam thinking? Didn't he know that invading Kuwait would piss off the US? Apparently not...

April in July
On July 25, 1990, eight days before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, a quiet, largely unreported meeting took place between Saddam Hussein and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie at the Presidential Palace in Baghdad, which has since been destroyed by the war. The transcript of this meeting is as follows:
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie:


"I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices, the immediate cause of your confrontation with Kuwait. (pause) As you know, I have lived here for years and admire your extraordinary efforts to rebuild your country. We know you need funds. We understand that, and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. (pause) We can see that you have deployed massive numbers of troops in the south. Normally that would be none of our business, but when this happens in the context of your other threats against Kuwait, then it would be reasonable for us to be concerned. For this reason, I have received an instruction to ask you, in the spirit of friendship - not confrontation - regarding your intentions: Why are your troops massed so very close to Kuwait's borders?"

Saddam Hussein:


"As you know, for years now I have made every effort to reach a settlement on our dispute with Kuwait. There is to be a meeting in two days; I am prepared to give negotiations only this one more brief chance. (pause) When we [the Iraqis] meet [with the Kuwaitis] and we see there is hope, then nothing will happen. But if we are unable to find a solution, then it will be natural that Iraq will not accept death."

U.S. Ambassador Glaspie:


"What solutions would be acceptable?"


Saddam Hussein:


"If we could keep the whole of the Shatt al Arab - our strategic goal in our war with Iran - we will make concessions (to the Kuwaitis). But, if we are forced to choose between keeping half of the Shatt and the whole of Iraq (which, in Saddam's view, includes Kuwait) then we will give up all of the Shatt to defend our claims on Kuwait to keep the whole of Iraq in the shape we wish it to be. (pause) What is the United States' opinion on this?"

(Pause, then Ambassador Glaspie speaks carefully)

U.S. Ambassador Glaspie:


"We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary (of State James) Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960's that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."

(Saddam smiles.)

Did Saddam outsmart Glaspie? Did she fall for his dictators charm, just following orders, or was she just plain naive.

On July 31st, two days before the Iraqi invasion, John Kelly, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern affairs, testified to Congress that the

"United States has no commitment to defend Kuwait and the U.S. has no intention of defending Kuwait if it is attacked by Iraq."

Eight days later, on August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein's massed troops invaded and occupied Kuwait (ironically, this was done in a method historically similar to the American anexation of Texas).

Gee... I wonder what made Saddam think he could get away with taking Kuwait...
Source (javascript link "the go ahead"). ;)

Remember those helicopters?
After the Gulf War the US encouraged elements in Iraq to turn on Saddam...

When Saddam Hussein's helicopters strafed rebels into submission
after the Persian Gulf war last year, superior US forces did nothing
despite President Bush's appeal to Iraqis to overthrow "the dictator."
US commander Norman Schwarzkopf claimed Iraqi ceasefire negotiators
"suckered" him, winning his permission for transport fights, then using
gunships against Iraqi and Kurdish civilians. But new evidence shows
Schwarzkopf himself set no helicopter limits. Other information raises
questions about whether he acted in the mistaken belief that the
helicopter forces would lead an anti-Saddam coup--and whether such a
fatal miscalculation was planted in the minds of the U.S. high command
by Iraqi agents.

Source

Sure Schwarzkopf, it isn't like you are a military expert like a general or something...
rolleye.gif

How nice of the US to allow all those who hate Saddam to reveal themselves and be killed, thus securing his rule for the next few years.

It seems the US bent over backwards for Saddam, even helped him stay in power after the Gulf War... and then all of a sudden hes a "bad man", or maybe hes not the US's "bad man" anymore, or he was a perfect scapegoat for the US's inablity to fight terrorist... lets make it look like we're winning policy. Call me a terrorist sympathizer, but I rather would have liked to see a person like Bin Laden caught by a US backed Saddam rather than the FBI, or CIA etc. because then he would then be doing laps in a vat of acid, or would have committed "suicide" by 3 bullets to the skull.
 

VioletAura

Banned
Aug 28, 2003
302
0
0
Old news, yes, however people fail to see that Saddam was supported by the US, even though they knew very well what kind of person he was. He did all the brutal things the US wanted to do, but couldn't. When I see people on this board posting things about the poor kurds and shi'ites being butchered and mass graves, lets remember that the US handed him the shovel to bury those people.

The US had propped up Saddam for decades for a reason and then bush jr comes along and bowls him over. There was some wisdom in keeping Saddam around, such as fighting radical islamic terrorism, unfortunately this current administration has a new agenda and the US is going to regret this in the long run when some guy walks onto a bus with a bomb because his cleric told him to, probably one of the same clerics that would be hanging on a meat hook in an Iraqi dungeon if the Ba'athist were still around in Iraq.