Whenever a repub talks about Saddam gassing his own people...

Be sure to give them a copy of this and ask them why the republican controlled White House (Their hero Ronnie Raygun) killed this measure by fighting it until it went away. I always wondered why this hardly got any press in the whole war thing when everyone was repeating the "gassing the kurds" thing ad nauseum.

The Prevention of Genocide Act of 1988


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
Section 1. Short Title . This act may be cited as "The Prevention of Genocide Act 1988."
Section 2. Findings . The Congress finds:
(i) The Kurdish people constitute a distinct ethnic group of some 20 million, with an ancient history and a rich cultural heritage;
(ii) Three to four million Kurds are citizens of Iraq, residing in the northern part of that country;
(iii)The Iraqi army has undertaken a campaign to depopulate the Kurdish regions of Iraq by destroying all Kurdish villages in a large part of northern Iraq and by killing the civilian population;
(iv) Conclusive evidence exists that the Iraqi army has used and is continuing to use chemical weapons against Kurdish insurgents and unarmed Kurdish civilians;
(v)Tens of thousands of Kurdish survivors of the Iraqi army assaults have taken refuge in Turkey;
(vi)Iraq's use of chemical weapons is a gross violation of international law; and
(vii)Iraqi's campaign against the Kurdish people appears to constitute an act of genocide, a crime abhorred by civilized people everywhere and banned under international law



Section 3. Sanctions against Iraq .
a)The United States Executive Director or representative at all international financial institutions of which the United States is a member is instructed to vote against all loans to Iraq .
b)The United States shall provide no assistance, shall make no sales of any kind of military equipment, shall provide no credits, and shall provide no guarantees of any credits to Iraq.
c)No item subject to export controls by any agency of the United States shall be sold or otherwise transferred to Iraq.
d)No oil or petroleum products produced in Iraq shall be imported into the United States.



Section 4. Waiver. The president may waive the sanctions contained in Section 3 if he determines and so certifies in writing to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations of the United States Senate that:
(i)Iraq is not committing genocide against the Kurdish population of Iraq; and
(ii)Iraq is not using chemical weapons banned by 1925 Geneva Conventions and has provided reliable assurances that it will not use such weapons.


Section 5. Commendation of Turkey. The Congress commends the government of Turkey for its humanitarian decision to host thousands of Kurdish people fleeing extermination in Iraq. The President is requested to convey to the government of Turkey this commendation.


Section 6. Assistance to Kurdish Refugees. It is the sense of the Congress that the United States should provide assistance to Kurdish refugees in need of medical treatment and other humanitarian aid.


Section 7. Effective date. This act shall take effect on enactment.

technicality of course, since they both were using it in the battle and since we probably sold to both sides, but we really shouldn't repeat the lie.

I thought I read something about that in Amy Goodman's The Exceptions to the Rulers. And biological weapons, too. That's why * was so sure we'd find WMD there.

Probably the definitive word on the so-called "gassing of Kurds by Saddam Hussein" at Halabjah: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0131-08.htm