A Good German - Thomas

A Good German - Thomas von der Osten-Sacken is a leading German expert on Iraq. This article - in Ha'aretz - both criticizes our mistakes in dealing with Iraq in the eighties and during the first Gulf War:

"American policy in Iraq is a series of huge mistakes. Firstly, it was a mistake to support that horrible regime in the 1980s knowing, for example, about the massacres against the Kurds. Secondly, it was a huge mistake not to let the Iraqi people topple Saddam in '91. The Americans feared democracy in the Middle East, they feared the breakup of Iraq because it would strengthen Iran, so they allowed Saddam to crush the uprising.

and approves of deposing him, for the good of the world.

"With regimes like the Iraqi one, there will be no peace in the Middle East. You cannot contain a regime like Saddam Hussein's. That was a mistake of the West. So the question is: Is America ready to face up to the mistakes it made in '91 and in the '80s? Are the Americans ready to support democracy? Because people like Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden grew out of the Middle East. They are not products of Afghanistan."

Worth a read.

Racist Racism Conference - An international conference on racism, in Barbados, voted to expel all non-black members.

It's so odd to see Cuba leading the dissent against that decision (which was proposed by British delegates).

Posted by Mitch at October 4, 2002 07:06 AM