Report: Saddam friendly with U.S. troops ("The Bush father, son, no good")

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforks/news/world/11940069.htm

Report: Saddam friendly with U.S. troops

RICHARD PYLE

Associated Press


NEW YORK - Thrust unexpectedly into the role of prison guards for Saddam Hussein, a group of young American soldiers found the deposed Iraqi leader to be a friendly, talkative "clean freak" who loved Raisin Bran for breakfast, did his own laundry and insisted he was still president of Iraq, says a report published on Monday.

GQ magazine's July issue says Saddam greatly admired President Reagan and thought President Clinton was "OK," but had harsh words for both President Bushes, each of whom went to war against him.

"The Bush father, son, no good," one of the soldiers, Cpl. Jonathan "Paco" Reese, 22, of Millville, Pa., quotes Saddam as saying. But his fellow GI, Specialist Sean O'Shea, then 19, says Saddam later softened that view.

"Towards the end he was saying that he doesn't hold any hard feelings and he just wanted to talk to Bush, to make friends with him," O'Shea, of Minooka, Pa., told the magazine.
A third soldier, Spc. Jesse Dawson, quoted Saddam as saying of Bush, "`He knows I have nothing, no mass weapons. He knows he'll never find them.'"

<</SNIP>>

[geek tragedy]

1. They're obviously not holding him in a reality-based community.

Though I LOVE the fact that he's a big Reagan fan.

Suck on that, Ronnie Worshippers!

[central scrutinizer]

5. Ronnie gave him everything he wanted:

all kinds of weapons, including chemical and biological weapons and even supplied the coordinates where they should be dropped. Ronnie even sent Rumsfeld over to give him a big hug.

[bribri16]

12. Ronald Reagan aremed Saddam to the teeth. Gotta love him!

He should also love Cheney and Rummy because they were in on arming Saddam and giving him whatever he wanted.

[fujiyama]

50. Isn't it just great

that the "Greatest American" is a role model of sorts for Saddam?

[psychopomp]

2. Surprised he is so coherent after the lobotomy

Seriously, though, I wonder if those GI's know what an opportunity they have to learn some things about the world by talking to this prisoner.

[magnolia]

3. Maybe it will be...

...Saddam's vote that will help Reagan win The Greatest American on the Discover channel!

[FormerOstrich]

4. the article is written a little heavy on the

past tense......makes ya wonder.....

[magnolia]

25. You are wondering what?

Is he still alive? I saw the two young men who guarded him interviewed on MSNBC. They were encouraged to feed him between meal snacks in order to keep his weight up. Dorito's were his favorite. What do you think...death my doritos?

Apparently Saddam gave them dating advice. That should make them popular with the ladies!!! LOL!

[undeterred]

6. Well, at least we all agree on something

"The Bush father, son, no good,"

[maxrandb]

8. It's Sad that it has to be Said, but

Today's presstitutes will spin this as;

"so, Senator, you say 'Bush is no good', so you're siding with Saddam?" "So Saddam admits that he was a Clinton supporter?"

With no mention of what he said about Saint Ronnie. Ronnie's dead don't you know. You can't talk ill of him, that would be like spitting on Lincoln's grave.

Hannity will start calling them "Saddamites".

See, you mustn't speak ill of our "Dear Leader".

[AuntiBush]

9. My Sediments, Exactly! Ya Beat Me To It!

Don't count on him making it to any court alive.
Poopie & sonny-boy can't afford to have him talking.

[underpants]

10. Yeah uh sorry if I don't want to align myself with Saddam

I agree that they are horrible but I don't want to be on "Team Saddam" thanks anyway.

[maxrandb]

16. Arghhhhhhh!!

The point of my post, which I thought was obvious, was that in today's environment, "you're either with us or 'agin' us".

I was trying to make the point that you can't possibly disagree with our "supreme leader", or make the point that he is a lying sack of shit, without being branded as on "Team Saddam". Thanks for making my point!

I can envision this on Faux News in the future. During Saddam's trial he will say "Bush is a liar". Faux News will take that clip, and immeidately follow it with a clip of Harry Reid saying "Bush is a liar".

Then ABC, CBS, and NBC will pick it up, and before you know it, Democrats will be asked to renounce Senator Reid. He's giving aid and comfort to the enemy, don't you know. Soon after that, Sen Lieberman will feel compelled to come out and say; "Saddam does not speak for the Democratic Party".

If we allow them to continue to frame the debate, in other words, framing it as

- "if you don't side with the pResident, you side with Saddam"

We are going to be stuck trying to answer those question every man dreads from his wife; "Does this dress make me look fat"?, or "Do you think she's attractive?"

[youspeakmylanguage]

18. You're missing the point...

Why do any of us care what Saddam thinks of Bush or Reagan or anyone else? We shouldn't care any more about what Saddam thinks than we do about what Charles Manson thinks, or David Berkowitz.

I was trying to make the point that you can't possibly disagree with our "supreme leader", or make the point that he is a lying sack of shit, without being branded as on "Team Saddam". Thanks for making my point!

But you're implying that if we voice disgust for Saddam, we are playing into their hands. We should pretend that Saddam wasn't a terrible, murderous dictator just to pander to the freepers and those on the radical fringe of the right?

I opposed and marched against the invasion, and continue to oppose the occupation of Iraq, because I believe that the push for war was motivated by other agendas than liberating Iraq for the "cause of freedom", which isn't a sufficient cause for risking and losing the lives of thousands of Americans overseas. I also believe that Bush should be impeached for lying to the American people concerning the intelligence (and the quality thereof) leading to the war AND for his complete mismanagement of it's aftermath. But I do not oppose the war because I thought Iraq would be a better place with Saddam in power.

The only way to counter fallacy is with the truth. We are not "on the side of the terrorists" because we aren't theocratic fascists! We aren't on the side of secularist dictators that mass-murder either. We're on our own side. It's that simple, and anyone with half a brain could effectively counter statements to the contrary with little or no effort. There is no reason why we should allow ourselves to be led into playing their stupid freeper games.

[dejaboutique]

24. I care a great deal

I would like to hear what he has to say, I have only heard one side

[youspeakmylanguage]

26. Knock yourself out...

I'm sure we'll be treated to more of this...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20462-2004Jul1.html

[Old and In the Way]

7. Think of the possibilities.

A journalist-soldier with a digital video-cam asking Saddam for his side of the story about the Bush family. Bet it would be most insightful.

[meganmonkey]

11. What? Saddam is human? And clean?!

I thought he was an evil dirty monster! Learn something new every day...
:shrug:


:sarcasm:

[RedSock]

13. HEY!

What's wrong with Froot Loops?

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. Why do you hate

Fruit loops?

:rofl:

[dad]

43. http:// www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8288955/

Saddam guards describe his Doritos habit
Ex-leader hates Froot Loops, loves Raisin Bran


They should put Saddam on the box

[bunkerbuster1]

14. Saddam's all about solidarity with the 101st Keyboarders, I see.

For a time his favorite food was Cheetos, and when those ran out, Saddam would "get grumpy," the story says.


Cheeto dust upon their clothes
Most are men, but all are hos...


sing along, won't you?
if you don't know the words...

http://rising-hegemon.blogspot.com/2005/05/and-now-with-pictures.html

[Supersedeas]

15. He know that I have nothing....but the Corporate Media ran the drum beat

to war show like it was a circus.

[Emendator]

17. Not surprising

Saddam was always a secularist and the most pro-Western leader of a major Muslim country. Women and non-Muslims were treated pretty well, much better than with the current chaos or a future Islamic oriented government.

His memoirs would be a very interesting read. I'd love to hear his side of things, which would do much to damage the myth of him being a modern day Hitler. But the neocons can't allow that to happen.

[youspeakmylanguage]

19. Is there any debate on whether or not he murdered/tortured?

Read my above post. Attempting to whitewash or play down Saddam's human rights abuses is incredibly damaging to our party and our credibility.

[0rganism]

20. The human race has its share of torturers and murderers

Some of them hold positions of considerable power.

Some of those positions are in governments with which we are currently closely allied.

Some of those positions are in our own government.

"playing down" Saddam's human rights abuses may damage our party, but denying that he has a human nature like many others will surely damage our psyches.

[geek tragedy]

22. It certainly won't hurt my psyche to skip past Saddam's 'human nature.'

I really don't care about Kim Jong Il's or Karimov 'human nature.' A murdering tyrannous thug is a murdering tyrannous thug.

[0rganism]

29. Do you think the only thing noteworthy about these people is their crimes?

Then your psyche has already been damaged.

A murdering tyrannous thug is a human, and is enabled in his "work" by other humans. To dismiss such human natures as unworthy of study is to ignore the mechanism by which murdering tyrannous thugs attain power beyond that of hired muscle.

> A murdering tyrannous thug is a murdering tyrannous thug.

There are murdering tyrannous thugs who never come close to ruling a crime family, let alone a nation, regardless of their aspirations.

There are murdering tyrannous thugs who rule countries for a short time, but are deposed quickly by assassins or revolutions or both.

Then there are murdering tyrannous thugs who exert iron-fisted control over a diverse population for decades.

[geek tragedy]

30. I really don't care what kind of cereal Saddam eats or his personal

hygiene habits.

He ordered mass murder and torture. That's what matters about Saddam.

Thank you for the bogus pop psychoanalysis, though.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[geek tragedy]

34. By using such harsh language, you only harm my psyche.

Have a nice day.

[0rganism]

35. By masking your intentions in floral language, you harm mine

Have a better one.

[youspeakmylanguage]

23. not really...

I don't think anyone here has denied Saddam is human, or that he has a "human-nature" (not sure what you mean by that...), but there is no moral equivalency in comparing his actions to the actions of anyone in our government, as despicable as some of those people may be.

[0rganism]

31. There are parts of his life that are *not* about torture and murder

...at least, not directly. And those parts, IMHO, are important to understanding the person. See, in your "above post", you say

> We shouldn't care any more about what Saddam thinks
> than we do about what Charles Manson thinks

But I do care very much what people like Manson and Saddam Hussein think, because it provides some insight into a part of the human experience that I do not expect to know firsthand. It is crucial, if the species is to move beyond this phase in our evolution, that we fully understand the part of us capable of becoming serial murderers, torturers, and ruthless totalitarian dictators governing huge populations. By ignoring such people as anything but criminals and tyrants, we rob ourselves of valuable understanding.

[youspeakmylanguage]

33. It is important for professional psychiatrists and criminal pathologists..

...as well as historians. As for the rest of us, it's mostly a cheap thrill.

[0rganism]

37. It appears we agree that it is potentially valuable information

You are inclined to say that it depends on "use value" to the learner, correct? A psychiatrist or criminal pathologist would be in a position to put such information directly to use in easing a burden to society, a historian could use it in documenting the matter for future reference, whereas the rest of us... well, let's look at that.

Suppose you have a book like the History of the Peloponnesian War, written about 2500 years ago by Thucydides, detailing matters that have already occurred and upon which one can have no lasting effect. Is there any lasting value to reading it in the 21st century, or is it just another cheap thrill forced upon students by professors who ought to know better? OK, it's easy enough to call that one, right?

Before you (rightfully) disparage me for drawing a false equivalence between the GQ article about Saddam Hussein and one of the classics of Western History, let's go a little bit off the beam. During the Pelloponnesian War, there was a leader, some might say the instigator of the conflict, named Alcibiades, who was biographed by Plutarch in Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. Herein, he outlines their various moral and political triumphs and failures; is there anything one could learn from reading such a document, in particular the story of Alcibiades, that would be of value to someone who is not a historian or anthropologist?

[youspeakmylanguage]

38. Since you seem to be an amateur (or professional) historian or...

...student of history, then Saddam Hussein may qualify as an interesting footnote hundreds of years from now. But comparing him to ancient despots demonstrates how sad and ineffective he really was at being a dictator and despot.

I would say Hussein has more in common with delusional Roman emperors like Caligula, although he isn't nearly as perverse, powerful, or even as interesting on an academic level.

[Emendator]

40. Moral equivalence

More people died in Iraq because of the two wars and sanctions than as a result of Saddam. And we wonder why we are hated.

[Emendator]

36. I know

I don't mean to downplay the things he did, and Democrats don't need to. But for that part of the world, he wasn't that bad, at least not as bad as some of the others we've supported, like Suhoarto. If Saddam had stayed in power, the Iraqi people would have continued to grow in prosperity, the regime would have had to soften, especially when the leadership changed. We're seeing that in China. We're also seeing a gradual evolution in Iran, where the people want to open up to the world.

But it looks like W's stupid rhetoric about Iran has brought a hardliner as a contender. Maybe this was done on purpose, because the neocons want to attack Iran. That's the next big battle - avoiding another war.

[youspeakmylanguage]

39. From what I read of his sons...

...the regime would have gone off the deep end. But you're right in one respect - political change has to come from within a country.

I doubt seriously that Bush will be able to launch an attack on Iran. His war machine has stalled.

[Emendator]

41. maybe

The way propaganda works and they way things have turned out about this war, I have to question everything, includeing whether his sons were as bad as they were made out to be. The one who ran the Olympic team, Odai I think, was supposedly pretty volatile and that's why Saddam picked the other, Qusai, to be his heir. Odai is said to have picked up random people on the street and would rape them and kill them. I have to question that. That sounds too much like Belgian babies being bayoneted by Germans in WWI. Or like the stories about how the Iraqis killed Kuwaiti babies in their incubators.

[Nostradamus]

27. Reagan killed thousands of Nicaraguan doctors and teachers

and was convicted of it in the World Court.

[katty]

28. Press Angry @bush? Quoting Saddam now?

[Disturbed]

42. " impeached for lying to the American people"

Sorry but that is not an Impeachable offense. Lying to the Congress regarding WMDs, Iraq as a Military threat to the U.S. and an Iraq connection to terrorism against the U.S. is.

[d_b]

44. He admired Reagan.

Must have been all those nerve agents and guns that won him over.

Maybe it was the pompadour.

[against all enemies]

45. Is Saddam still the leader of Iraq?

He thinks he is, and he was overthrown by an illegal invasion. What would the World Court say?

[KamaAina]

46. "Saddam greatly admired President Reagan"

That pretty much sums up the whole thing in a nutshell -- with the emphasis on "nut".

[daleo]

47. When it comes to causing Iraqi deaths, Bush's are equal to Hussein

Between them, the Bushes have probably been responsible for killing several hundred thousand Iraqis (indirectly, through military attacks, I mean).

[Rose Siding]

48. Reuters: Saddam misses Ronald Reagan, magazine says (Clinton: OK)

snip>
The jailed former Iraqi leader described how Reagan, who was president during the time of Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran, sold him planes and helicopters. "Reagan and me, good,"' Saddam said, according to the article by Lisa DePaulo in the July issue that goes on sale June 28.

"He said, 'I wish things were like when Ronald Reagan was still president,"' said one of the soldiers who guarded him.

The article recounts the stories of five U.S. soldiers from the Pennsylvania National Guard who watched over the captive for nearly a year. All five have completed their tours of duty and returned home, the article said.

President Bush and his father, former President George H. W. Bush, are "no good," while former President Bill Clinton was "OK," Saddam told his captors. The former president led a U.N.-coalition that defeated Saddam in the 1991 Gulf War after the Iraqi invasion of of Kuwait.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/20/captive_saddam_misses_ronald_reagan_magazine_says/

[rocktivity]

49. Just in time for the run-up to Georgie's June 28 fireside chat!

But why such young inexperienced prison guards? Is the stage being set for an escape?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Moderator]

51. Kick

[NNN0LHI]

52. Captive Saddam misses Ronald Reagan, magazine says

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N20297754.htm

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein likes Doritos, washes his hands compulsively and thinks fondly of the late U.S. President Ronald Reagan, according to American soldiers who guarded him and tell their story in the July issue of GQ magazine.

The jailed former Iraqi leader described how Reagan, who was president during the time of Iraq's 1980-88 war with Iran, sold him planes and helicopters. "Reagan and me, good,'" Saddam said, according to the article by Lisa DePaulo in the July issue that goes on sale June 28.

"He said, 'I wish things were like when Ronald Reagan was still president,'" said one of the soldiers who guarded him.

[Cocoa]

53. wonderful

but Reuters should give more background, like how when Congress passed a resolution condemning Saddam, the Reagan administration sent a delegation over there to assure Saddam the U.S. was still his friend.

[ruggerson]

54. And Reagan is actually up for one of the 5 greatest Americans

according that idiot cable channel show.

"Saddam's choice for greatest American: Ronald Reagan!"

[BOSSHOG]

55. Highly recommended

And thank you for the post. I look forward to limbaugh's indepth analysis tomorrow on the intimate relationship between saddam and ronnie. How saddam became a menace for others to deal with because of ronnie. How ronnie sat in the oval office in suit and tie and ordered the murder of priests and nuns and children in central america while propping up a gas wielding dictator in the middle east and not remembering one fucking minute of it. I'm sure limbaugh will make everything crystal clear for the lemmings tomorrow.