Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] facism gaining ground in US

[Robin Green]

On Sat, Jul 17, 2004 at 11:34:25PM +0200, nadim wrote:
> Saddam also gave the impression to be a loose canon but in fact was a nice 
> guy that had quite a lot of pals in the US.

Correction: no, no he wasn't a "nice guy". I agree with the rest of what you
said, but that's just not true. He had female political opponents arrested
and jailed on the pretext that they were prostitutes. He oversaw a terroristic,
corrupt regime that allowed no political opposition. You don't have to go
very far to back this up. From a quick google: "In April [2002] the UN
Commission on Human Rights adopted a resolution strongly condemning
''the systematic, widespread and extremely grave violations of human rights
and of international humanitarian law by the Government of Iraq, resulting in
an all-pervasive repression and oppression sustained by broad-based
discrimination and widespread terror.'' "

Yes, some of the accusations against him were made-up or of dubious authenticity
(the notorious "Kuwaiti babies torn from incubators" story that was used to
galvanise the US population in favour of Gulf War I - and was completely made 
up.
See http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/kelly/what.htm )

But not all. Anyone who wants to claim that someone credibly accused of crimes
against humanity was "really a nice guy" should have done a lot of research
to back this up, or they just come off looking like a Stalinist or fascist.

-- 
Robin

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