Rumsfeld has a short memory for who 'appeased' Iraq

[spindrifter]

The Daily Star--Lebanon
By Peter Galbraiyh
Commentary by
Saturday, September 02, 2006

In his most recent justification of his Pentagon stewardship, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reached back to the 1930s, comparing the Bush administration's critics to those who, like US Ambassador to Britain Joseph P. Kennedy, favored appeasing Adolf Hitler. Rumsfeld avoided a more recent comparison: the appeasement of Saddam Hussein by the Reagan and first Bush administrations. The reasons for selectivity are obvious, since so many of Hussein's appeasers in the 1980s were principals in the 2003 Iraq war, including Rumsfeld.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan initiated a strategic opening to Iraq, then in the third year of a war of attrition with neighboring Iran. Although Iraq had started the war with a blitzkrieg attack in 1980, the tide had turned by 1982 in favor of much larger Iran, and the Reagan administration was afraid Iraq might actually lose. Reagan chose Rumsfeld as his emissary to Hussein, whom he visited in December 1983 and March 1984. Inconveniently, Iraq had begun to use chemical weapons against Iran in November 1983, the first sustained use of poison gas since a 1925 treaty banning that.

Rumsfeld never mentioned this blatant violation of international law to Hussein, instead focusing on shared hostility toward Iran and an oil pipeline through Jordan. Rumsfeld apparently did mention it to Tariq Aziz, Iraq's foreign minister, but by not raising the issue with the paramount leader he signaled that good relations were more important to the United States than the use of poison gas.

This message was reinforced by US conduct after the Rumsfeld missions. The Reagan administration offered Hussein financial credits that eventually made Iraq the third-largest recipient of US assistance. It normalized diplomatic relations and, most significantly, began providing Iraq with battlefield intelligence. Iraq used this information to target Iranian troops with chemical weapons. And when Iraq turned its chemical weapons on the Kurds in 1988, killing 5,000 in the town of Halabja, the Reagan administration sought to obscure responsibility by falsely suggesting Iran was also responsible.

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http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=5&article_id=75184

[ginnyinWI]

1. Galbraith talked to Lawrence O'Donnell on Franken's show today

He's got a book out--The End of Iraq, which looks really interesting. This guy knows his stuff. Instead of putting in experts like Galbraith, * put a bunch of political hacks in Iraq who had no historical perspective on the region.

[spindrifter]

2. Yes. They all belonged to the

Neocon Club and/or were related to DickieBird.

[Supersedeas]

3. but the Cable "news" Pundits will have something ELSE to snicker about

[Disturbed]

5. Where's that photo of Rumsfailed with his

buddy Saddam?

[samsingh]

4. good point. wasn't rummy french kissing saddam in the 80's?

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Fuzzy but untouched

[spindrifter]

7. Good find!

I wonder if he keeps it in a silver frame in his office.

[Hailtothechimp]

15. Caption for this photo: Appeasement in Action.

RumSTFUld is a joke, but the game he's playing is all too real. He must be called out on this.

[SeaBob]

8. K&R

[young_at_heart]

9. Maybe the scare/bullying tactics won't work this time

I think he enjoys himself when he uses uncivil talk and scare tactics!

[ginnyinWI]

10. he's so crazy, he actually does the Dems a service

He gets in the media and reminds us that nobody sane will be in charge until we get some Dem leadership in office.

[Tom Joad]

11. Daniel Pipes is the guy who urged Reagan to arm Saddam. He was a special

advisor to Baby Bush, and was even sent to the . You can read "The New Repbublic" April 27, 1987 article here.
http://tomjoad.org/pipes.htm

Daniel Pipes was appointed by President Bush during the Summer Congressional recess in August 2003 (to avoid a problem with Congress, why should Bush's appointments be questioned by anyone?) to the the board of United States Institute of Peace, a Congressionally sponsored think tank dedicated to "the peaceful resolution of international conflicts." (Note that he had the solid support of reactionary groups like the ADL) He served there until the end of 2004.

[StrictlyRockers]

12. Hypocrisy abounds!!

Rummy is a fascist appeaser!

[rodeodance]

13. it is an irony that SH gasing his people is now a MANTRA with the RW!

..Rumsfeld never mentioned this blatant violation of international law to Hussein, instead focusing on shared hostility toward Iran and an oil pipeline through Jordan. Rumsfeld apparently did mention it to Tariq Aziz, Iraq's foreign minister, but by not raising the issue with the paramount leader he signaled that good relations were more important to the United States than the use of poison gas.

[BlueEyedSon]

14. More like "enabled"

[Hubert Flottz]

16. Dick Cheney APPEASED A TERRORIST !

Firm's Iraq Deals Greater Than Cheney Has Said
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post
June 23, 2001

During last year's presidential campaign, Richard B. Cheney acknowledged that the oil-field supply corporation he headed, Halliburton Co., did business with Libya and Iran through foreign subsidiaries. But he insisted that he had imposed a "firm policy" against trading with Iraq.

"Iraq's different," he said.

According to oil industry executives and confidential United Nations records, however, Halliburton held stakes in two firms that signed contracts to sell more than $73 million in oil production equipment and spare parts to Iraq while Cheney was chairman and chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company.

Two former senior executives of the Halliburton subsidiaries say that, as far as they knew, there was no policy against doing business with Iraq. One of the executives also says that although he never spoke directly to Cheney about the Iraqi contracts, he is certain Cheney knew about them. More...

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/sanction/iraq1/oilforfood/2001/0627chen.htm

AND GEORGE W. BUSH/Enron APPEASED THE TALIBAN...

Dabhol - Enron Timeline

snip...

May, 17, 2001: The U.S. indirectly gives $43 million to Afghanistan's Taliban government as a reward for its efforts to stamp out opium-poppy cultivation. The same day, White House's energy policy recommended, "the president direct the Secretaries of State and Energy to work with India's Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to help India maximize its domestic oil and gas production."

http://www.monitor.net/monitor/0202a/enrontimeline.html

"Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta
'Splainin To Do"

snip...

17. May 2001 - Secretary of State Colin Powell gives $43 million in aid to the Taliban regime, purportedly to assist hungry farmers who are starving since the destruction of their opium crop in January on orders of the Taliban regime.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/02_11_02_lucy.html