Chavez: Oil could unite Christians and Muslims

[HysteryDiagnosis]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wovene0919,0,7907131.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines

Chávez spoke after the two donned hard hats and clasped hands in a raised fist as they inaugurated their first jointly run oil well -- a publicity stunt that bore a strong Madison Avenue-style sheen despite abundant jabs at the United States.

Ahmadinejad, who appeared slight and subdued alongside his burly, boisterous counterpart, said later in Caracas that he "respects" Pope Benedict XVI, despite his having recited a 14th-century Byzantine emperor's comments that depicted some aspects of Islam as evil or violent.

The pope's comments may have been taken out of context, Ahmadinejad said. Still, he added in Farsi through a Spanish translator, "All the wars that have occurred in the 20th century have been caused by Europe and the United States. So ... who is seeking war?"

[geek tragedy]

1. Who does he blame for the Iran/Iraq war? What a moran. eom

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. "Our Boy" Saddam started it, or so it is said. n/'t

[geek tragedy]

4. Well, Saddam isn't European or American, is he?

Blaming the US or Europe for that war is kinda like blaming the Ottoman Empire for World War I.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Saddam was an American tool..... perhaps this will sharpen

the focus...

http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html

[geek tragedy]

6. So, Saddam was acting under US orders when he invaded Iran?

:silly: :wtf: :crazy: :tinfoilhat:

Was Imperial Japan acting under Hitler's orders when it invaded China?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. Who armed him so as to make him able to accomplish this

task? WHO ARMED HIM. Who supported him.... it's pretty obvious if you watch the flash.

[geek tragedy]

8. Most of his arms came from the Soviet Union. Those weren't American

built tanks and rifles his men had.

The Iran/Iraq war was started by Iraq invading Iran. That was one Arab country invading a Persian country.

[katsy]

9. America "encouraged" the war...

and indeed supplied intelligence and economic aid. An who supplied the chemical weapons?

[geek tragedy]

10. That doesn't change the basic fact that an Arab country

invaded its neighbor. Sure he had allies that helped him out, but primary blame goes to the government of Iraq.

Saddam was the #1 reason of the Iran/Iraq war.

[katsy]

13. It's debatable.

Without economic aid, intelligence & chemical weapons - would Saddam have started the war.

I don't know.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

11. Russian tanks yes, and the stuff we provided was just

window dressing.

http://www.counterpunch.org/green02242003.html
Rumsfeld's Account Book
Who Armed Saddam?

by STEPHEN GREEN
At the time of the visit , Iraq had already been removed from the State Department's list of terrorist countries in 1982; and in the previous month, November, President Reagan had approved National Security Decision Directive 114, on expansion of U.S.-Iraq relations generally. But it was Donald Rumsfeld's trip to Baghdad which opened of the floodgates during 1985-90 for lucrative U.S. weapons exports--some $1.5 billion worth-- including chemical/biological and nuclear weapons equipment and technology, along with critical components for missile delivery systems for all of the above. According to a 1994 GAO Letter Report (GAO/NSIAD-94-98) some 771 weapons export licenses for Iraq were approved during this six year period....not by our European allies, but by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

>>According to the hearing reports (which are available on a current website: www.chronicillnet.org/PGWS/tuite/default.htm) among the chemical weapons which had been sold to Iraq were some of the very most lethal available: Sarin, Soman, Tabun, VX, Lewisite, Cyanogen Chloride, Hydrogen Cyanide, blister agents and Mustard Gas. Some of the powerful biological agents sold included anthrax, Clostridium Botulinum, Histoplasma Capsulatum (causes a tuberculosis-like disease) , Brucella Melitensis, Clostridium Perfringens and Escherichia Coli.

Witnesses on the first day of the hearings included Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Edwin Dorn, and the officials in both the Defense Department and the CIA responsible for non-proliferation policy. Interestingly, in what was often an adversarial exchange between the Committee and these officials, the latter admitted in sworn testimony that while no chemical/biological weapons had been found to have been "stored or used" by the Iraqi Army during the conflict, American troops had nevertheless been exposed to airborne traces of C/B agents from having been downwind of storage facilities that were bombed by U.S. planes.

Simply put, while Saddam Hussein had shown restraint in the Gulf War by not deploying his most lethal weapons, the U.S. Government had, a) sold chemical/biological agents and shipped them directly to Iraqi military installations, including some just months before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, b) distributed faulty chemical/biological agent detection sensors and protrction gear such as gasmasks to U.S. troops and, c) caused the exposure of these troops by the bombing of military storage areas upwind of them. <<

[geek tragedy]

12. The US did have dirty hands, but it wasn't the cause of that war. eom

[Demeter]

2. Oil Is a Divider, Not a Uniter

Greed is also a divider--unfortunately, it's not divided the GOP, since they are quite liberal with sharing the spoils amongst themselves.

No, what will unite the world is contempt and fear and loathing of the US of A and its figurehead leader.