on 8/3/00 4:24 PM, Dan Koenig at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> He facilitated the
> opening of the much-needed respectability of a UN umbrella for a US-led
> alliance to destroy Iraq.
> Why? Because despite the costly debacle of the war with Iran,
> Saddam Hussein remained the only Arab head of state capable of
> providing Arab leadership and resistance to neo-colonial US/UK and
> western domination of the Middle East, and its oil.
Denis Halliday would have preserved his credibility better if he had
refrained from tendentious nonsense like this. One of Chomsky's central
arguments--well-documented, unlike Halliday's silly claim--is that the US
had NO problem with Saddam until he invaded Kuwait, because he was one of
"our" regional strongmen. And indeed, all evidence is that this is precisely
the case. Halliday's claim, therefore, is little more than rewriting history
to heroicize the Iraqi regime.
--
Tresy Kilbourne
Seattle WA
"The Clinton-haters and their friends in the media are like a cargo cult:
they keep expecting something to fall from the sky, and years of
disappointment never seem to awaken any doubt." - Joe Conason