SADDAM DID IT AGAIN

Malcom Lagauche

According to Draper, Bush admitted that his administration did not plan for sectarian violence after the invasion of Iraq. Draper said Bush "figured the Iraqi leader was fomenting ethnic divisions that would ease when he was gone" (...) It’s quite simple: we now can all blame Saddam Hussein for the sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq for the past few years. The only problem with this theory is that it lacks any truth. Let’s go back to the year prior to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. We saw picture-after-picture of Saddam meeting with tribal leaders. We saw him meeting with Shi’ite, Sunni, Christian and other groups. His message was one of unity in the face of a U.S. invasion. Toward the end of 2002, Saddam released all prisoners in Iraq. His message was of forgiveness and unity, not fragmentation. Shortly before the March 2003 invasion, we heard that Saddam had stopped issuing the food rations to the Iraqi people. On the contrary, each Iraqi received six months worth of rations in case chaos ensued. This forward-thinking action has received little or no press. Many Iraqis were saved from starvation because of this move on the part of the Ba’ath regime (...) In reality, the guys who created the ethnic divisions in Iraq were the same who met with Bush before the invasion. Ahmed Chalabi was their chief...

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