Through Hussein's Looking Glass

[realFedUp]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-saddam12oct12,1,1983638.story?coll=la-home-headlines

THE CONFLICT IN IRAQ
Through Hussein's Looking Glass
CIA report says the Iraqi leader assumed the agency knew he didn't have banned weaponry.

By Bob Drogin
Times Staff Writer

October 12, 2004

WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein was convinced he won the Persian Gulf War in 1991. And when he destroyed all his weapons of mass destruction after that war, Hussein was sure the CIA knew it. As a result, he saw 12 years of United Nations resolutions, trade sanctions and threats of war as a charade to humiliate him.

In Hussein's view, Washington and Baghdad should have been close allies. He could have helped curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, and solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He offered to become America's "best friend in the region, bar none." He was certain U.S. forces would never invade.

snip

They saw evidence of banned weapons when none existed. They missed signs that now seem obvious. President Bush, for example, insisted before the war that the failure by U.N. teams to find any evidence of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons despite 731 inspections in the four months before the invasion simply proved that Hussein was hiding them — not that they didn't exist.

snip

In Hussein's view, the U.S. priority in the region was to ensure that Iran's Islamic Revolution did not spread to other nations and give radical Shiite clerics a chokehold on global oil supplies. He was convinced that Washington's national interest lay in containing Iran's suspected nuclear arms program, not in toppling his regime.

continued.

[realFedUp]

1. my letter today in response to this article

To the editor,
Re: "Through Hussein's Looking Glass",
Oct. 12, Bob Drogin, is full of ironies
beginning with the statement that
Hussein "misread U.S. intentions in part
because he believed the CIA was far better
at spying that it turned out to be." The irony is
the CIA did get the situation right,
but the Office of Special Plans and Dick Cheney
fabricated reasons to invade Iraq. Another irony is
Saddam knew the CIA since they supported him
and his Ba'athist regime through many
coups in Iraq, beginning with
the murder of General Qassim in 1963 and
during the years until Saddam took power. After eight
years of Reagan's CIA supporting Iraq with weapons
and biochemical agents in a war against Iran,
Iraq became bankrupt and when Kuwait lowered
their oil prices, preventing Iraq from
attaining the funds to rebuild, Saddam's
quest was to invade. His initial request to invade Kuwait
of the United States was green lighted by April
Gillespie and James Baker, then Secretary of State.
The U.S. reneged on that agreement and
the rest is history. It would be helpful
for the American people to know Saddam's
complete history, not just by the "evildoer"
label conveniently placed on him by
this administration and media.

rfu