Saddam’s trial should include U.S. guilt

With former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein captured and his trial
impending, an opportunity for the U.S. government and the entire world
to tell the truth has arisen.

That opportunity is not really in the favor of the United States, but of Saddam himself.

From Hussein’s rise to power in the mid-1970s to his invasion of
Kuwait in 1991, Hussein has held many close financial, diplomatic and
strategic contacts with the U.S. government and American arms dealers.

This relationship became vital to the U.S. when the Shah of Iran was
removed from power by the popular mullah Ruhollah Khomeini.

It was then that the Carter administration, followed by Ronald
Reagan, began to believe the Islamic revolution brewing in Iran would
spill over into the entire Middle East, presumably with the help of the
Soviet Union.

For Reagan, after taking office and getting credit for ending the
hostage situation in Tehran, he then began to endorse our puppet
Baathist Saddam, including talking Saddam into going to war with Iran.

The Reagan administration made a number of policy decisions that have shaped the reasons why we are neo-colonizing Iraq today.

In 1983, Reagan took Iraq off the list of states supporting
terrorism. At this point, Reagan himself fully endorsed Iraq’s human
rights abuses.

In December 1983, Reagan appointed Donald Rumsfeld as Special Envoy
to Iraq, to improve diplomatic relations with the rogue state, which
was heavily at war with Iran.

In those talks, Rumsfeld, Saddam and Iraqi deputy premier, Tariq
Aziz, negotiated having U.S. defense contractor Bechtel (where
Secretary of State George Schultz had been CEO from 1974 to 1982 and
Secretary of Defense Cap Weinberger was vice president from 1975 to
1980) build a new $2 billion oil pipeline in Jordan. Later, meetings
between Tariq Aziz and Rumsfeld included Rummy offering military and
financial aid for Iraq’s war, even with knowledge of Saddam’s uses of
chemical and biological warfare against Iranian troops.

In August 1984, the CIA set up a direct connection for Iraq to U.S.
spy satellites in order to help his strategic strikes against Iranian
oil fields and tankers.

The Iraq-Iran war was the longest land war since World War II.

Saddam did in fact use chemical and biological weapons against both
Iranian troops and Kurdish rebels, yet the United State was the only
U.N. Security Council member to veto a U.N. resolution condemning his
action.

If the Reagan administration’s actions weren’t enough to circumvent
the American public, George W. Bush’s administration has won the “most
lies told” award, with the left- and right-wing media coming in second.

In December 2002, when Iraq submitted a 11,800-page documentation of
its entire weapons of mass destruction program, the United States
obtained an advanced copy from friends in Columbia, which was
temporarily presiding over the Security Council. The Bush
administration then prepared a 3,000-page version that omitted details
on weapon’s suppliers and financial aid from Western countries, many of
which were part of Dubya’s “coalition of the willing.”

According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights
watchdog group, the omitted material included information about 86
German, 24 U.S., 18 U.K., 17 Austrian, 16 French, 12 Italian, six
Russian and four Japanese companies whom had supplied Saddam with arms
and materials to make chemical and biological weapons throughout the
Iraq-Iran war.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called the incident “unfortunate.”

The unfortunate part is the Bush administration intends to re-write
history, particularly history his father and Ronald Reagan wrote in
blood with the U.S. dollar.

When and if Saddam does take the stand, you better believe that
former CIA Director William J. Casey, Reagan, Rummy and Bush Sr. will
be mentioned in his defense as favorable supporters of his actions.

The question is, will ordinary Americans ever question who really gave “The Butcher of Baghdad” his knife?

Staff writer Chad Livengood can be reached for comment at liven1cj@cmich.edu.