Originally Posted by spence (Post 694906)

There's no evidence of this that I've ever seen.

The closest argument is that he was donating money to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, but this is clearly more motivated by a desire to be seen as a compassionate leader by the Arab street rather than generating more terrorism. WOW

Not always. In many dictatorships the brutal leader is seen by their people as a protector. HUH???In Iraq I think this was less so, hence the need for such obsessive security. Saddam's grip on his people was pretty weak.


In the late 1990's there was a big neo-con push to depose Saddam which generated a lot of attention. Would you like to go through the speeches of both Clintons, Kerry, Gore, Albright, and a host of democrat pols and pundints(not Neo-Cons) that spoke against Saddam in the most serious terms regarding the threat that he posed? Nobodies saying he was a good guy, the issue is if he was a bad enough guy to warrant a mostly unilateral invasion. In the late 1990's the opinion from Clinton and the US Congress was a resounding no.

The only reason he was a bad enough guy this time around is because the Bush admin fabricated the link to 9/11. exactly what was the link that was fabricated?

What changed? Our leadership changed, not Saddam.this is correct and he was not going to change


Much of the containment issues we have been having are a direct result of our policy positions actually empowering those who which we contain. nothing to do with the psychopath dictators?

N. Korea is a great example. You can't label someone as "evil", declare you're not going to talk to them and then have a hissy fit when they don't follow your every command. It just doesn't make any sense. talking to Iran is working out quite well
Bush labled Iraq, Iran and N Korea evil. The Bush admin. acted on Iraq and left North Korea and Iran to the UN for the most part...Iraq has CHANGED and N.Korea and Iran are still a pain in the a$# and the USELESS UN is still doing what it does best...nothing!
-spence