"Gordon" wrote in message
...
This is my one input to this thread - I believe that countries do things
in
their own interests 90% of the time and if other folks are getting
butchered,
well, that's just terrible. Saddam was seen as the lessor of two evils in
the
region, then over the years gained in stature among despots, reaching the
pinnacle of brutality. By then, America had been distancing itself from
Saddam
for years.

If by the pinnacle of his brutality you mean his extermination of thousand
of Kurds with chemical weapons then the US was certainly still supporting
him at the time. Concern was certainly expressed within intelligence and
government circles yet foreign policy at the time dictated a blind eye be
turned as you say because of the "lesser of two evils". But then a lesser
of two evils is still an evil.

But even as we drew away, other countries embraced him, pointing at
our earlier involvement as a sort of extenuating circumstance for their
current
colusion. Plus, our government drilled it into everyone's heads that
Saddam
was actively working to either nuke or dust us.

Despite the fact that he never expressed any intent to attack anyone outside
of the region? He was certainly critical of US government behaviour, seeing
the US's double-dealing in the Iran-Iraq war as a betrayal, but there's
little evidence he was working to create anything beyond a theatre
capability. (Where as we on the other hand actively seek to create
inter-continental weapons capable of threatening and striking those who
oppose our political standpoint. Is it any wonder that nations the world
over want to redress the balance?)

With that as a background,
France stood up as defender of Iraq's despot, not its people. The
differences
between us became a rift and for the foreseeable future, its going to
remain.
America didn't do things in Iraq for the right reason, and neither did
France.
The main difference is that we stopped supporting Saddam at some point.
France
never did. Both countries were "beating their wife", but at least we
stopped.

It was only stopped due to political expediency and a shift in allegiances.
America no longer had anything to gain by supporting Saddam, I don't believe
conscience or the welfare of the oppressed citizenship had anything to do
with it. The defence of Kuwait and protection of Saudi Arabia show
un-democratic and despotic regimes continue to be supported in defence of a
greater evil.

Si