Just for fun. Did Saddam really gas his own people?

I keep hearing this from the other side of the fence. I have always sort of assumed it was correct. Now I have reason to wonder. Here is what I have uncovered so far.

In the article, Pelletiere said the only thing known for certain was that "Kurds were bombarded with poison gas that day at Halabja. We cannot say with any certainty that Iraqi chemical weapons killed the Kurds."

The former CIA official revealed that immediately after the battle the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency investigated and produced a classified report that said it was Iranian gas that killed the Kurds.

The source of this info is here.

Now there is some disagreement with those assertations here. However in this article there is another interesting little nugget.


In 1989 President George Herbert Walker Bush took power and ordered a review of United States policy toward Iraq. According to Power:
The study ... deemed Iraq a potentially helpful ally in containing Iran and nudging the Middle East peace process ahead. The "Guidelines for U.S.-Iraq Policy" swiped at proponents of sanctions on Capital Hill and a few human rights advocates who had begun lobbying within the State Department. The guidelines noted that despite support from the Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and State Departments for a profitable, stable U.S.-Iraq relationship, "parts of Congress and the Department would scuttle even the most benign and beneficial areas of the relationship, such as agricultural exports." The Bush administration would not shift to a policy of dual containment of both Iraq and Iran. Vocal American businesses were adamant that Iraq was a source of opportunity, not enmity. The White House did all it could to create an opening for these companies"Had we attempted to isolate Iraq," Secretary of State James Baker wrote later, "we would have also isolated American businesses, particularly agricultural interests, from significant commercial opportunities."

I would pay big money to be a fly on the wall at the Bush holiday get togethers. (I am sorry. I , of course mean Christmas.) You must be able to cut the tension with chainsaw.

Now even if this is bullshit I do not believe for an instant that Saddam is not a terrible human being deserving of punishment. I most certainly do. I just don't know if he is the Boogedy-boogedy man that the administration so enjoys painting him as.

To be honest I usually discount just about everything that the administration tells me, they tend to lie you know.