[MD] Barbarian attack

[Platt Holden]

Mike:

> The fact that, despite an enormous search opeation, no concealed
> weapons have been unearthed.

Who has searched Syria where Saddam is said to have sent his WMD?

> We in England were told by the Blair administation that Saddam had the
> capability to launch WMD within 45 minutes, and I find it unlikely that
> such claims did not circulate in the US media as well. A bit of
> selective memory at work here, Platt?

Who in the Blair administration said that? Bush specifically denied an 
imminent threat in his state of the union speech in 2003.:

"Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since 
when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely 
putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to 
fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all 
recriminations would come too late."

So much for "selective memory." 

> They can't have been the fundamentalist Muslim barabarian terrorists
> that you're banging on about, because Saddam was violently secular.

Saddam and Al Qaeda had much in common including use of terrorist 
tactics and hatred of the U.S.

> I said _international_ terrorism, Platt. The myth was circulated that
> Saddam had links to al-Qaeda. But, as you say, Saddam was a nasty piece
> of work who ruled by _internal_ terror. The pretext of liberation was,
> however, one of the last to be adopted for the Iraq war, as the noses of
> our leaders and media were beginning to resemble that of Pinocchio.

You don't consider Iraq's unprovoked attack on Kuwait "international?"

> Who's excusing him? Saddam was a bastard. ('But at least he was our
> bastard'... back in the '80s!) And on what grounds do you lump him into
> your "barbarian" category with the fundamentalist Muslims?

Your selective memory must have blocked out Saddam's reign of murder 
and torture. 

Regards,
Platt