... Personally I prefer the complaints of inconsistency to the old, tired charges of being inherently pro-dictator.
You can have both. You don't need to chose between. Both are true.
... US actively assisted Saddam kill at least 100,000 Iranians with poison gas attacks. This is why when he went thru the "show trial" later that condemmed him to death, the use of poison gas was not permitted to even be mentioned (might embarass the US). He was tried and convected because he killed a group of kurds who had tried to assinate him. ...
IMHO, Saddam, like many others, was one of the CIA's constructed "golden boys" who subsequently escaped their control and they had to get rid of him. Saddam made a big mistake - he tried to sell oil for Euros, instead of dollars. That is what got him killed. He was doing well, back when he did as US told him too.
This "escape from control" is such a common pattern. It is happening again now in Packestan - Musharric was our "golden boy" there until about a year or two ago when he stopped taking orders. The US will see that he is killed soon too. - I do not understand why these "golden boys" never learn from history to be more like the Shaw of Iran was - live to grow old, get medical care in US hospitals, etc. don't try to escape control.
From:
http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=1748341&postcount=98
After this was posted, the US set up another dictatorship in Honduras. Every country in South America, except the puppet government in Columbia, refused to recognize the military junta that over threw the democratically elected president, who took refuge to save his life in the Brazilian Embassy for about a year. If this Honduras dictatorship runs true to normal pattern, they in turn will be destroyed after they cease following US orders. That is the “inconsistency" part.
Just as Saddam was US’s “golden boy” for years and then the “evil monster” that justified the war. Here Donald Rumsfield is agreeing to supply Saddam with satellite photos of Iranian troop concentrations. - Saddam's use of poison gas only became operationally effective a few months after this photo was taken. The US was still very angry at Iran for holding many American captives and without US help Iran was very likely to win the Iran/Iraq war, so the US helped Saddam commit war crimes, which is why poison gas could not be mentioned at Saddam's trial.
Noriego is another such case – I think he is now in a Miami jail but he was, as I recall, helped by use of the CIA’s planes to fly drugs into the US to raise fund for the Iran contra affair after Congress made use of taxpayer’s funds illegal. (My memory may be a little confused in this case, but I am too lazy to search and correct any errors. I also have the vague idea that he may have been released an set up in power again - perhaps he learned his lesson in that Miami jail and will take orders again?)
Also earlier in the midst of the “cold war”
every democratic government in South America was destroyed by the CIA’s support for local right-wing factions who set up dictatorships - ~50,000 supporters of the return to democracy were killed, mostly in Chili – Several thousand by being drugged and then pushed out of the US supplied helicopters into the sea – no bodies to bury. They and about 10,000 others are called: “the disappeared.”
10 to 15,000 democracy return supporters were killed in Argentina, and about 5000 in Brazil. They sometimes tried to escape across borders but the CIA set up “Operation Condor” – an information sharing / coordinating computer system to keep taps on their cross border movements. They had to as the various dictatorships were not trusting of each other, but would work with the CIA. South American only emerged from these dictatorships when the CIA and US became deeply involved in the Vietnam War and did not have time and manpower to keep democracy movements down in South America.
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Above photo and following text are from:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
{For many years George Washington Un. has been using the freedom of information act to pry out documents. Many have great section blacked out for national security reasons, but slowly the truth is being documented for future historians.}
"... Rumsfeld also met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, and the two agreed, "the U.S. and Iraq shared many common interests." Rumsfeld affirmed the Reagan administration's "willingness to do more" regarding the Iran-Iraq war, but "made clear that our efforts to assist were inhibited by certain things that made it difficult for us, citing the use of chemical weapons, possible escalation in the Gulf, and human rights." He then moved on to other U.S. concerns [Document 32]. Later, Rumsfeld was assured by the U.S. interests section that Iraq's leadership had been "extremely pleased" with the visit, and that "Tariq Aziz had gone out of his way to praise Rumsfeld as a person" [Document 36 and Document 37].
Rumsfeld returned to Baghdad in late March 1984. By this time, the U.S. had publicly condemned Iraq's chemical weapons use, stating, "The United States has concluded that the available evidence substantiates Iran's charges that Iraq used chemical weapons" [Document 47]. Briefings for Rumsfeld's meetings noted that atmospherics in Iraq had deteriorated since his December visit because of Iraqi military reverses and because "bilateral relations were sharply set back by our March 5 condemnation of Iraq for CW use, despite our repeated warnings that this issue would emerge sooner or later" [Document 48]. ..."
BT comment: legalistically, the US did not commit any war crime. It only supplied targeting information essential for Saddam's effective use of poison gas against Iranian troops.
A prediction: If the Egyptian government remains under the military or some group like the Muslim Brotherhood gains control - that will be no problem for the US & CIA - they will support the new dictators, just as they did the old. It is so much easier to work with a dictator, who depends upon you for tear gas, water canon, and small arms than an unpredictable democracy.
