America made Saddam

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During the mid 2000's it was popular among the dim of wit, and big of mouth, to claim that Saddam was created by America. That kind of rhetoric tends to come from the uninformed, the trolls, or both. Saddam was never "our boy" like some claim.

World politics is tough; you deal with the cards you are dealt at the time.

We had been dealt Saddam Hussien in a time when Iran became a bigger threat. He seemed like he would be reasonable and was a counter balance to Iran (thus helping to stabilize the region). He was more a friend of France and USSR, and got his weapons mostly from them, but we were starting to deal with him.

However, he quickly showed his true colors (gassings and chemical weapons and so on), and quickly resisted any attempts at civility.

The French and Russians didn't let his immorality get in the way of their amorality -- we did.

We kept trying to persuade him to be reasonable and work with him, but he resisted and our relations kept breaking down. That's the way it works -- you give people a certain benefit of the doubt until they prove you wrong.

We never “liked” Iraq because they were anti-Israel and pro-Soviet. We dealt with them a little after Iran took hostages to see if we could cultivate any sort of civility, and because we had no choice -- he was there, like it or not.

We realized we couldn't deal with him, and he was a fanatic. Europe didn’t let fanaticism get in the way of taking his money and oil; and France and Russia helped him build a Nuclear Reactor, sold him weapons, gave him training and were helping him get the bomb. Our dealing with Saddam didn't start until 15 years after his rise to power, and never extended to a fraction of that which we've had with most other countries and leaders. So once again, those attacking the U.S. had better avoid mirrors. While we are far from flawless, nor are we wrong at everything we do.

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Written: 2005.08.04