We prosecuted Saddam, and Bush is far worse than him.
This is as ignorant a statment as I have ever seen.
The dictator, Hussein, invaded the soveriegnty of Iran and Kuwait. He flew his military jets over the soveriegnty of Saudi Arabia and Jordan as late as 2002. He instigated the extreme escallation of suicide bombers in Israel. (That would make "5" soveriegn nations he disrecpected and scoffed at.)
Clinton's administration:
1) January 13, 1993 (The week before his inauguration): US forces stepped up our confrontation with Hussein. More than 100 American, British, and French fighters bombed Iraqi air-defense targets. Five days later, forty-five TLAMs launched ay sea destroyed a factory that had ben a key part of Iraqi's nuclear program. These attacks were followed with further jet-fighter air strikes the next day.
2) In the fall of 1994, he demanded that the UN lift sanctions, and to force the issue he deployed 80,000 troops near the Kuwaiti border. Clinton sent 50,000 troops, including an aircraft carrier battle group and hundreds of aircrafts. (Operation Vigilant Warrior). After Hussein backed down, 5,000 American troops remained in Kuwait.
3) One year later, Hussein pulled a similar stunt. American troops once again reinforced Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Jordan. As a result of these efforts, the US maintained a sizable force in the Persian Gulf.
** Isn't one of the heartbreaks of the Radicals and extremists that we have a presence in the ME? We were there because of Hussein's defiance to behave. In '96 a suicide terrorist detonated a truck bomb at the Khobar Towers where Air Force perosnel slept, killing 19. Al-Queda called on all Muslims to expel the US from Saudi Arabia. Somewhere we wouldn't be had it not been for Hussein's continued behavior to threaten his neighbors.
4) August 1996: Two months after the Khobar Towers bombing, Hussein launched another offensive inside Iraq that forced his fourth confrontation with Clinton in less than four years. He attacked the Kurds in the north. They were under the protection of the no-fly zone, imposed in 1991 by Operation Provide Comfort; HUssein's action also violated the U.N. Security Council Resolution prohibiting him form repressing his people. Clinton's military planners readied the military, but neither the Sauds nor the Turks allowed US planes to launch air strikes from their territory. (Sauds worried about radicals and extremists and the Turks are wary about anything that might help a Kurd). So on September 3, Clinton ordered a cruise missile strike, sending forty-four TLAMs against air defense targets in southern Iraq.
**The result of this latest "confrontation" was a calling from mmilitary and political officials to invade and remove Hussein once and for all. The covert operation by the CIA (started under the first Bush) was given more funding by Clinton to organize internal opposition to challenge Hussein). Albright stated, "
Our policy of contrainment is time-consuming, fraught with repeated crisis, and costly to maintain in temrs of our relationships. The repeated conforntations with Saddam Hussein's regime and the loss of momentum from the Gulf War have led to containment fatigue within the internaitonal community."
5) Autumn 1997: Hussein began placing restrictions again on UN inspectors and demanded that all American be kicked off the teams. Clinton ordered another buildup of U.S. military forces in the Gulf. Hussein backed off. Wolfewitz, who once defended Bush's policy to maintain the dictator after the Gulf War was now looking for the inevitable solution and stated, "
military action will need to be part, but only a part and not the main part."
6) 1998: Hussein once aain prevented the UN inspectors from working and Clinton found the UN Security Council deadlocked over whether or not it should use "proper" military means to compel him to cooperate. Gore states, "
Saddam delivers phony concessions and backs off just enough until we are forced into another crisis, and he keeps doing this over and over until we run out of steam." Clinton states to the Pentagon, "
We are faced with the predators of the 21st century. They feed on the free flow of information and technology...and they will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. The clearest example of this kind of threat was Saddam's Iraq. His regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region, and the security of all the rest of us. If we fail to respons today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will e emboldened tomorrow b y the knowledge that they can act with impunity, even in the face of a clear message from the United Nations Security Council and clear evidence of a weapons of mass destruction program."
7) Mid year 1998: Congress passes and Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act, codifying the aim of regime change into U.S. law and authorizing nearly $100 million in Pentagon funds to support the Iraqi opposition. One month later, Hussein started polaying games with UN inspectors again and Operation Desert Fox commenced. Once again targets were obliterated, however this time General Zinni became sceptical of a weapons of mass destruction program because the targets were towards conventional and "maybe" targets.
**In 2000, Berger states, they "
Had a responsibility to leave the next administration with a viable Iraq policy, not a mess. It would be up to that administration to decide what to do."
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This was all done for his continued defiance of the numerous strictures the U.N. Security Council had placed on his behavior. These included forcing the Baghdad regime to fully disclose (which he never did) and dismantle (which he did unilaterally and in secret to keep his regional enemies guessing and in fear) his weapons programs, adhere to comprehensive international inspections (which he refused repeatedly), and end the repression of its people, namely the Kurds and Shia populations (which he refused to do).
And aren't we held responsible for seeking a peace between Palestinians and Israelis? With Hussein funding suicide bombers we were hopelessy locked in failure.
As late as 2002, Hussein flies military jets over Jordan and Saudi Arabia's airspace to further taunt American action. Along comes 2003. Bush goes into Iraq with the same "confusion" of whether or not a weapons of mass destruction was going on in the absence of UN inspectors. Our intel reports can't specify locations or targets, but the continued defiance to keep UN inspectors away from select areas or from doing their job implies that their is something to hide. The result is a removed Hussein, no WMD program located, and the tribes begin to slaughter each other. Bush is labeled a "Hitler" and an orchestrator of genocide (which actually accuses US troops of genocide). He is accused of tyranny simply for not respecting Hussein's sovereignty. Yet, the absence of sovereignty for Bosnia, Kosovo, and Haiti are forgiven. Further, we are to pretend that UN intervention since 1991 and American, British, and French bombins somehow implied that Hussein's soveriegnty was intact and respected in the first place.
What I have always found great humor about is how people seem to think that "dipolomacy" wasn't even tried. That an entire decade of playing games with our military and against the UN didn't occur. That repeated confrontations wasn't going to be forever in our future with his regime (whether with him or his worse sons). That somehow, we could absolve ourselve of responsibility if we only pretended that this thorn could forever remain in ours, the UNs, and the Middl East's side.
You have no basis to accuse Bush of being worse than Hussein. Absolutely none. And this is why protestors are taken seriously only to their first exaggeration or lie. One would think that a protestor would have enough to protest about without inventing a reality to protest about.