|
When Saddam 'gassed the Kurds', said Kurds happened to be unfortunately living at that time in the middle of a WAR ZONE on the border with Iran. The actual purported target of the attack (at Halabja I believe was the most infamous incident, the one with the largest death count, around 5000 people I think) was the Iranian Military, who were trying to gobble up chunks of Kurdish-Inhabited land on Iraq's periphery.
Once the pictures of the gassing hit the international media, there was a world outcry, and the Democrats, who controlled both houses of the US Congress at the time, responded with outrage as well. Senator Claiborne Pell (D) authored a bill (co-sponsored by one Albert Gore Jr, D-TN) condemning Saddam Hussein and formally ending all subsidies to Iraq (at that time, the military subsidies were cleverly disguised as being agricultural in nature). Pell's act passed Congress easily, the only No votes were from ... right-wing Republicans, of course.
At the time, you see, Iran was the 'bad guy' to St. Ronnie and Poppy Bush, so ... what did they up and do? Well, for starters, for months on end, they went around insisting that it was IRAN who had gassed the Kurds! Common Knowledge, I know, huh, like, DUH, but I just thought I'd remind the scant few who don't remember that little detail!
In fact neither of them have ever publicly admitted being wrong about it even after overwhelming scientific evidence proved it beyond doubt!
Don't get me wrong, the Iranians were using chemical weapons at that same time, against Iraq (and no doubt caught up some innocent people) as well, in fact there's some reason to believe Saddam's was something of a retaliatory chemical attack...but that part, just as everything I'm sharing here, is common knowledge, so, duh, like, I won't go into too much detail about it.
But get this: that's not even the worst part of what St. Ronnie did. The worst part is that he VETOED Senator Pell's bill! And then, dig it man, GUESS WHO then led the valiant fight in the US Congress to make sure the Great President's VETO would stand, and that Mr Saddam Hussein's INFAMOUS "Gassing of the Kurds" went completely UNPUNISHED by the United States of America?
That would be one Mr. Richard "Dick, aka, Go Fuck Yourself" Cheney (R-WY).
So, blame the USSR all ya want, pal, if it makes you feel better, okay? The rest of us around here know which side of the US political spectrum Saddam's chemical weapons bread got buttered by ... and it ain't OURS.
|