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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, December 30, 2006

A few more stray thoughts

Why is it so important that America knows that Bush was asleep during the execution? (AP, NYTimes, AFP) Obviously, the White House wanted that out there.

Second, I'm not going to put the "noose" picture up because it's on the front pages everywhere. For some reason I'm finding that pervasiveness very strange.

Third, now that Saddam is dead, the secrets so successfully suppressed during the trial, are forever kept: The US's role in the Iran/Iraq war, the US and European supply of the precursors for Saddam's chemical weapons arsenal. (There's a reason the US wanted him tried and executed for Dujail before/instead of the Halabja gassing.)

(Juan Cole has a brief Saddam history, and I'd forgotten about this.)

4 Comments:

  • Well said. I couldn't agree more. The facts are out there about our involvement with Hussein in the 80s, after Dujail and Halabja. But - surprise - they get very little attention in this country.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:47 AM  

  • The "trigger" moment for me is when I realized that Saddam was on trial for Dujail, 1982, and that famous Rumsfeld Saddam cooperation picture was in 1983.

    Also: You gotta figure with so many Reagan officials in the current administration, those revelations would be particularly damning, naming current officials as the villains.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:12 AM  

  • Stray comment...

    The US pushed for a speedy, public trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. Iraqis could go forward as a nation, it seemed, without dragging the former leader (a despotic brute, to be sure) before the bar and then executing a summary, well, execution.

    Given this backdrop, I found the following qoute from Dick Cheney interesting:

    "Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon."

    Think about this for a minute.

    By Blogger -epm, at 9:55 PM  

  • Harkens back to the idea of a South Africa/Rwanda Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

    That recommendation was rejected early by the Bush administration because, at the time, they were afraid of the Baathists taking back over.

    Oh, to go back to simpler times.

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 10:30 PM  

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