The WP today has a story on Saddam that almost humanizes him. Almost. The last lines are particularly galling:
Duelfer reveals that between 1994 and 1998, Duelfer as well as Rolf Ekeus, a former chief U.N. weapons inspector, were "approached multiple times by senior Iraqis with the message that Baghdad wanted a dialogue with the United States and that Iraq was in a position to be Washington's 'best friend in the region bar none.' "
"Baghdad offered flexibility on many issues, including offers to assist in the Israel-Palestine conflict," Duelfer recalls. "Moreover, in informal discussions, senior officials allowed that, if Iraq had a security relationship with the United States, it might be inclined to dispense with WMD programs and/or ambitions."
Anyone want to take bets on the political leanings of the story's author? I normally don't fall into the pack of those who criticise the media as excessively leftist, but this particular piece seemed a bit too one-sided for me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Perhaps Mr. Hussein merely sought to reestablish his cozy relationship he had with the United States under the ever-so-wise stewardship president-actor Ronald Reagan.
Taking the mockery of your comment leaves only: that Saddam wanted to return to the position that he held under Reagan. His position at that time was not one of friendship with the US, but of a politically expedient proxy vis-a-vis Iran's growing influence at the time. If you mean that Saddam wanted to return to our favorite SOB in a region of them, then all I can say is maybe. The point of this post though is that the author of the WP piece doesn't balance Saddam's actions with this supposed bit of loving-kindness (i.e. that we could play nice again). Trying to disparage Reagan or to make a mockery of having worked with Saddam in the past is both off-topic and idealistic. Even the darlings of the anti-war left (Russia, France and Germany) keep company with murderour regimes the world over, yet they are hardly ever subject to ridicule from the left. Why is that?
Post a Comment