"Past moral culpability"
From Peter Beinart's column: "The Bush administration's current outrage at Saddam's crimes is bogus. If people like Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and Richard Armitage (all of whom held prominent government positions in the '80s) really cared about the Iraqi people, they wouldn't have helped Saddam brutalize them in the '80s. And, since the United States doesn't care about the Iraqi people, our real motivation for war must lay elsewhere - either in a thirst for world domination, or oil, or both.
"Why don't my fellow hawks ever discuss America's history with Saddam Hussein? Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush armed him. The history is appalling, and it involves key officials shaping Iraq policy today. Saddam first used chemical weapons in 1983. The Reagan administration wasn't bothered. To the contrary, it sent Middle East envoy Donald Rumsfeld to Baghdad. In the spring of 1984, Rumsfeld returned for another visit. During Reagan's presidency, the United States sold Iraq anthrax, bubonic plague, and botulinum toxin. Over congressional opposition, Reagan sold Iraq 'Huey' helicopters, which Saddam used in chemical attacks on the Kurds. Rumsfeld should have trouble sleeping at night given his role in abetting Saddam's crimes. Instead, last fall on CNN, he insisted that in 1983 he 'cautioned' Saddam about chemical weapons." State Department records show no such thing. - link to TNR.
March 1, 2003
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maru
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3/01/2003 12:48:00 PM
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