Will trying Saddam absolve America for helping him slaughter Iraqis?

[NNN0LHI]

[mike_c]

1. what's going to absolve America for slaughtering Iraqis...

...on its own? I suspect the U.S. military has killed more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein by now.

[The Doctor.]

2. Trying Saddam could have just the opposite effect...

Should he present evidence that the US encouraged him and gave him material assistance our international status will hit a new category of freefall.

[NNN0LHI]

4. I think the body of evidence is ample

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/



Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein:
The U.S. Tilts toward Iraq, 1980-1984

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 82

Edited by Joyce Battle

February 25, 2003


The Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) was one of a series of crises during an era of upheaval in the Middle East: revolution in Iran, occupation of the U.S. embassy in Tehran by militant students, invasion of the Great Mosque in Mecca by anti-royalist Islamicists, the Soviet Union's occupation of Afghanistan, and internecine fighting among Syrians, Israelis, and Palestinians in Lebanon. The war followed months of rising tension between the Iranian Islamic republic and secular nationalist Iraq. In mid-September 1980 Iraq attacked, in the mistaken belief that Iranian political disarray would guarantee a quick victory.

The international community responded with U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for a ceasefire and for all member states to refrain from actions contributing in any way to the conflict's continuation. The Soviets, opposing the war, cut off arms exports to Iran and to Iraq, its ally under a 1972 treaty (arms deliveries resumed in 1982). The U.S. had already ended, when the shah fell, previously massive military sales to Iran. In 1980 the U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Iran because of the Tehran embassy hostage crisis; Iraq had broken off ties with the U.S. during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

The U.S. was officially neutral regarding the Iran-Iraq war, and claimed that it armed neither side. Iran depended on U.S.-origin weapons, however, and sought them from Israel, Europe, Asia, and South America. Iraq started the war with a large Soviet-supplied arsenal, but needed additional weaponry as the conflict wore on.

Initially, Iraq advanced far into Iranian territory, but was driven back within months. By mid-1982, Iraq was on the defensive against Iranian human-wave attacks. The U.S., having decided that an Iranian victory would not serve its interests, began supporting Iraq: measures already underway to upgrade U.S.-Iraq relations were accelerated, high-level officials exchanged visits, and in 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.)

[PurityOfEssence]

3. It'll make it easier to say that it never happened

That's all that matters. They're hoping that they can try him on peripheral crap and execute him before he spills the beans.

Saddam still wants to be the big pan-Arab tough-guy hero, and his ego may very well keep him from exposing the United States even when he knows it will mean taking this to his grave.

[Metta]

5. Look for them to project lots of blame on him for their failings.

They're desperate about wanting to keep their feet of clay in the shadows.

[NNN0LHI]

6. Look at this quote

Jane Arraf, of the Council of Foreign Relations think tank, predicted that the administration of President George W. Bush “will do everything they can to capitalise” on the long-awaited trial.

[K-W]

7. Does turning in your getaway car driver absolve one of a robbery?

I dont think so.