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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (45561)	2/23/2006 2:22:19 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

During the years of the Iran-Iraq war, the success of Iraq was in the U.S. National interest. You admitted that "We helped him out because we didn't want to see Iraq overrun by the Iranians". Iraq was an ally during those years, just as Iran was our ally during the years of the Shah. People do not need to be friends to be allies. People can be different in many categories and still have a commonality of purpose. Saddam brought a western legal system to Iraq and contributed to secularizing the country. In thus defending U.S. interests against Iran and against radical Islam, he was indeed an ally in the middle east. The fact that politics required that much of the U.S./Iraq relationship existed beneath the lens of public scrutiny at the time does not in any way alter the truth of that relationship or the magnitude of the importance attached to the containment of the Iranian Revolution. "Stalin was an ally. We provided the USSR with a lot of aid, and we both fought against the Germans" Just because Saddam did not fight against the Germans does not mean we were not on his side; nor that we were not fighting against the Iranians through Saddam's agency. The U.S. and Iraq were associated for a common purpose; and that meets the definition of "ally": "a sovereign or state associated with another by treaty or league" Also, "one that is associated with another as a helper" "Selling helicopters to someone doesn't make them our ally" Relying on another to further our National interests...DOES.