Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Bush blames Iraq debacle on Hussein
President George W. Bush said former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's brutal divisive legacy, rather than the US-led invasion, was to blame for Iraq's current sectarian violence.
"Today, some Americans ask whether removing Saddam caused the divisions and instability we're now seeing ... In fact, most of the animosity and violence we now see is the legacy of Saddam Hussein. He was a tyrant who exacerbated sectarian divisions to keep himself in power," he said.
Forgive me, but if the base cause of the insurgency is indeed the actions Hussein's former regime, we would have known what we were getting ourselves into before we invaded.
// posted by Erik @ 3/29/2006 08:26:00 PM
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Actually, Hussein was apparently keeping a lot of this violence from erupting. The sectarian violence he was into was slaughtering the Kurds. Of course Clinton managed to get that contained. In fact, unless I'm missing something here, the Sunnis and the Shiite were living as neighbors in most portions of Iraq under Saddam.
I suppose it's accurate to say "Sunnis and the Shii'tes were living as neighbors," but Hussein used draconian measures to control the sects.
There is a good argument to be made that the Brits' post-colonial partitioning made "Iraq" a tinderbox.
There is a good argument to be made that the Brits' post-colonial partitioning made "Iraq" a tinderbox.
Don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of Hussein. But I believe the world was better off with him contained. I think that eventualy he needed to be removed - but no more than the mullahs in Iran or the governments of some African nations, Sudan comes to mind.
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