Rumsfeld + Saddam sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g

[mckitterick]

From a friend and former Lawrencian (Mike):
"I would like to see a few things highlighted in the press. For example, when Rumsfeld talks about Saddam using WMDs against his own people, he's right. He has known about this for a long time. In fact, he knew all about it when he was photographed smiling & shaking hands with Saddam on December 20, 1983."

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
(Note that this was after Saddam had gassed his own people to the horror of the world.)

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/special/iraq/

"Now he's raging with righteous indignation. Why didn't it bother him then?"

Well, it didn't profit him or his cronies to rail against it before. Duh. When Rumsfeld first visited Saddam in 1983 and did the famous handshake, it was on a mission to get Bechtel's oil pipline approved.

Chris

Comments

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

Yes. At risk of repeating myself, here, if we compare the levels of criminality, and ugly Realpolitik between the infamous Nixon administration and the Shrub Reich...it's like sitting a small-time dealer down in the same room with frickin' Scarface.

Was Kissinger ever this cynical? Perhaps so, but at least people recognized the fact that the man was a monster. Jesus H Cheerist!

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

You raise an interesting question: Is someone more evil because he is cynical and intentional about his evil? They say Satan (well, Lucifer, anyhoo) is a smooth-talker and honestly believes he is not a bad guy...

I loved the movie, "The Prophecy." It's a science-fictional treatment of a fantasy premise.

Whoah, am I getting off-topic.

What time is it? Time to go home!

Chris

Re:

[c3fyn.livejournal.com]

Well, Satan isn't a bad guy--he's just misunderstood!

Seriously, I would say those who knowingly perform evil (i.e. they know in their hearts that what they are doing is just plain Wrong) are definitely higher up on the "evil" scale, in some sense. Of course, it's difficult to make those kinds of judgements. Obviously, a very large portion of humanity is capable of evil (Nazi Germany! No they shouldn't be allowed to live it down just yet, imho.), and some people are so blinded by ideology that they either don't understand the implications of their action or they have been duped into accepting a warped value system which they may later regret. With Kissinger, who knew full well that he was chumming about with bloodthirsty dictators and genocidal religious zealots, we have an example of someone who is knowingly performing evil acts, though supposedly with overarching good intentions. We might say the Shrubbies are part of that, but there seems to be an awful lot of sheer cynical capitalist profiteering going on that makes them the worst of the lot. Of course, there is a fair bit of overlap between the Nixon administrations and the Shrub Reich, so...


I love "The Prophecy" too. Christopher Walken!

Let the record show..

[arian1.livejournal.com]

That absolutely no one in the Bush administration seems to even pay heed to any of this. Why? Because they need the new Haliburton pipeline to be put in. Old men with money, gotta love it.