John Korber wrote:
>
> In a message dated 11/6/97 3:37:47 AM, you wrote:
> >Yes, you are (mis- or non- informed). The person you refer to is a fiction.
>
> >The situation is more complicated, and also on the wrong end of a "national
>
> >security" info freeze.
> > Does this tell you anything?
>
> Not really. How is Saddam "fictional"? And fictional or real, he does seem to
> head the government of Iraq. Puppet, ex-flunky or whatever, he doesn't seem
> to mind killing people any less than many other other heads of state, et.al.
> at all.
>
> It certainly is complicated, and full of undisclosed motivations, but Hussien
> is a murderer.
> Ok, Clinton is a murderer too. And somebody's flunky as well.
> That doesn't make Hussein any less of a threat to ordinary folks. That was my
> only point.
> Moving along:
> A question I've often wondered about was why Hussein was left in power after
> the Gulf war. Any theories?


A) To contain and threaten Iran
B) To keep an enemy in place to keep the Kuwaitis and Saudis nervous and
willing to keep US/imperial forces in place to protect the Straits of
Hormuz
C) To keep in place a plausible threat to justify the US/imperial war
machine: with Saddam in place you only need one other threat to
rationalize a two-front military establishment.
D) To keep alive a plausible threat to Israel so as to rationalize the
continuation of aid (mainly military) to Tel Aviv and
E) To rationalize the continued Israeli colonialism and oppression of
the Palestinians

There's probably more: To counterbalance the guy in Damascus, and to
keep a hold on the Kurds, so to alleviate the strain on secular Turkey.
don' get me stawted...
konopak



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