The Trial of Saddam Hussein and The Fallout of The War

The Trial of Saddam Hussein

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The fallout in the Middle East from the regime change in Iraq

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Re Baathification

Most commentators agree that one of the worst mistakes made, post Iraq invasion, by the US and interim Iraq administration was the "de Baathification law" which removed anyone with Baath party connections from positions of responsibility.

This naive and foolish ruling resulted in utter chaos, as there was no one left in positions of responsibility with the ability or understanding to run organisations and government ministries effectively.

Finally someone has seen come commonsense, and Iraq's prime minister and president will introduce legislation to let former members of the Baath party to resume their jobs in the government.

Whether this is measure is enough to pull Iraq out of its engulfing chaos remains to be seen.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Bolton Attempts To Rewrite History

John Bolton's, President Bush's acerbic ex ambassador to the UN, attempted to rewrite history on CNN's Late Edition, by claiming that Bush never said that Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat.

In answer to a question from Wolf Blitzer, Bolton said:

"He himself (Saddam Hussein) and his regime were the threat to international peace and security. The president never made the argument that he constituted an imminent threat. It was the existence of the regime that was the threat. And that is why it was right to overthrow it".

Unfortunately for Blizter, historical records show that in fact Bush's administration did make that claim.

Donald Rumsfeld, for example, said in November 2002:

"When did the attack on September 11 become an imminent threat? Now, transport yourself forward a year, two years or a week or a month...So the question is, when is it such an immediate threat that you must do something?"

Bolton should know that history can only be rewritten by the winning side; the Neo Cons have lost the argument, and the war, they are in no position to try to rewrite history.