IS SADDAM THE VILLAIN?

THE EDITOR: Much of what has been said about Saddam Hussein is misleading and untrue. 

The facts are:
— Saddam was the greatest ally the West had prior to the 90’s Gulf War
— In regions dominated by Islam, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq continues to be the most tolerant and friendly state to Christians.  Iraq’s Deputy Leader, Tariq Aziz, is a Christian.
— Saddam did not start the Gulf War by invading Kuwait; Kuwait started the Gulf War by drilling oil on disputed Iraqi land.  Saddam asked them to discontinue or face war.  With the support of the US, Kuwait chose war.
— The Kurds and Iraqis have a long history of war and rebellion and there have been atrocities committed by both sides. 

These facts can change one’s perspective and effect a paradigm shift if read with an open mind.  Consider this:  Saddam became the US’s ally to fight Iran following the fall of the Shah of Iran and the Ayatollah Khomeini takeover. The US suffered great economic loss in that takeover, at that time, in much the same way that they viewed communism as a threat, they viewed Islamic states as a threat, partly because of a general unwillingness to accept alternative political systems, but also because of the threat that such states pose on Israel. 

Saddam also assisted the West in the war against Russian troops in Afghanistan.  However, during the 80s, it became evident that the US was also supplying the enemy, Iran, with weapons.  It is well documented that the US betrayed Saddam, on the one hand by supporting Iraq and selling billions of dollars in military weapons to them, while at the same time also selling arms to the enemy — Iran.  The profits earned from the weapons sold to Iran were used to fund another illegal war, the war against the legitimate Sandanista Government of Nicaragua which the US opposed. This betrayal by America triggered Saddam to stop the war with Iran.  Clearly, the US must have once again lost the control they had on the economy of an oil rich nation.

There are other issues as well, such as the hostility of the Kurds in Northern Iraq and which Western States provided Saddam with the technology to produce deadly chemical weapons.  These matters need not be discussed in detail as the truth is emerging.  Firstly, even the UN is unsure of how best to manage the Kurds with or without a second Gulf War.  They have a history of conflict with both the Turks and the Iraqis. Turkey meanwhile is eyeing the rich oil reserves of the Kurdish Northern Iraq and no doubt, Belgium, France and other European nations recognise that Turkey may be more interested in the spoils of war than in Saddam’s danger to world peace.  Furthermore, the Kurds haven’t been showing any real effort to form a separate state, Kurdistan, but even if they did, one wonders if they won’t pose a greater threat to peace than the present Iraqi regime. Regarding the technology to produce chemical weapons, Saddam developed this while receiving the support of the US though everyone is afraid to say it, the most logical explanation as to how Iraq got the technology is that it came from the US.  

Stephen Aboud
Port of Spain