Quote:
Originally posted by Rodeo
He was a grave threat to Iraqis that did not obey him, no one is arguing otherwise.
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Hussein, and the Ba'athists, are and were a type of socialist party. They guaranteed freedom of religion to the more than 3 million Christians living in Iraq, and to other lesser known religions. That is in the process of being eliminated by radical Islamists, supported by the Bush'ists.
Any time a muslim cleric stuck up his head to grab power for Shiria Law and Islam, Hussein remove it.
Hussein's undoing was his involvement with the US federal government beginning in the mid-70's (or slightly earlier) and ratcheting up during the Reagan era, finally culminating with his ill advised, US encouraged, military operation against Iran during the early to mid-1980's. Showing Iraqi military prowess, the Iranians kicked their asses, and without US supplied real time satellite imagery of Iranian positions, and other intelligence, would have gone into and occupied substantial portions of Iraq. As it was, the best the Iraqi's did was a return to the approximate borders ante bellum. That was against a country run by clerics located right next door.
Fast forward to 1990, Hussein swallows whole the idea that if he settles differences with Kuwait militarily, the US government won't care. That was and is the mark of someone that simply doesn't understand US government history of 20th century, world wide geo-political hegemony. In short, he was a strategic fool.
But, in the thirty years of ruling Iraq; other than the military deaths during the failed invasion of both Iran and Kuwait, Hussein and the Ba'athists killed fewer Iraqi citizens than the Bush'ists have in the last two and one half years.