A friend forwarded this email to me. I'm not sure about all the statements, but it helps put things in perspective. "I am not condoning what happened to the Iraqi prisoners...however, I think it is vitally important that in my head I have these matters in proper perspective... * Saddam had Iraqi men, women and children put to death in human meat grinders on a daily basis...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... *Saddam had people thrown off of 3 - 4 story buildings, while their relatives were forced to watch...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Saddam had people's tongues cut out, limbs chopped of, and even beheaded, while their families were forced to watch...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Saddam's sons, as well as other Administrators and military personnel raped and sodomized Iraqi girls, some as young as 8 years old, on a daily basis...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Saddam's regime indiscriminately put to death millions of Iraqi citizens on a daily basis, during the term of his brutal dictatorship, as evidenced by the mass graves recently uncovered in various parts of Iraq...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Terrorists recently exploded several car bombs in Bagdad, killing 17 innocent Iraqi children and several dozen innocent Iraqi citizens...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Terrorists have been killing American/Coalition soldiers on a daily basis since we sent our troops, many of whom gave their lives on Iraqi soil, used US taxpayer dollars to liberate the Iraqi people...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... * Four Americans were killed in Fallujah, their bodies were burned, mutilated, drug through the streets and hung on a bridge...while Iraqi people cheered and stoned the bodies...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE OR THE ARAB COMMUNITY... AND NOW, A FEW IRAQI PRISONERS HAVE BEEN HUMILIATED (poor babies)...A PAIR OF WOMENS UNDERWEAR PUT ON THE PRISONERS HEADS, A FEW NAKED PHOTOGRAPHS...AND THE IRAQI PEOPLE AND THE ENTIRE ARAB COMMUNITY GO BALLISTIC...GIVE ME A BREAK!!! As I said, I don't condone what happened to the prisoners...but until the Iraqi's and the Arab Community gets their act together...I wish the American news elite would stop being part of the problem and stop using this story to the benefit of the Arab community. I DON'T WANT MY PRESIDENT TO APOLOGIZE TO THE ARABS FOR ANYTHING! WE ARE AT WAR! "
Wow what an e-mail full of falsehoods and ignorance. You are correct, it is an interesting one. It's interesting that one person could be so wrong, and ignorant of the facts. When Saddam was doing most of his killing of his own people, there were outcrys from Iraqis(as loud as they dared) but not from the U.S. who were supporting Hussein at that time. Hussein even at the height of his cruelty was not killing millions on a daily basis as this e-mail says. The outcry from the Arab world at large rang loud and clear when even the Syrians sent troops on the ground to fight against Saddam during the first Gulf War. The outcry from Iraqis came when, at the urging of Bush Sr., they rose up in open revolt against Saddam. Outcries don't get much louder than that. Of course Bush Sr. didn't follow through with support for the revolutionaries, and their revolution was cruelly crushed. This is war, and this e-mail just launched a major attack on the truth and facts.
Saddam just brutalized a bunch of Iraqis and threaten to kill and torture them if they outcried...NO OUTCRY FROM THE IRAQI PEOPLE!
When there is a person as bad as Saddam there is no need to exaggerate his fould deeds. To do so only weakens any case people are trying to make against him, and ruins their credibility.
The whole killing millions a day was one of the statements I think went way to far. Plus I think he should have stated "No outcry from the Arab community nor US Media" instead of the Iraqi people. As Sam has stated, they never really had the FREEDOM to do any Outcrying w/o fear of death or reprecusions. Ain't it great to live in a democracy!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently not anymore. Our goal now is not to be worse. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if this wasn't even true for some...
Is that our new benchmark? We've really set our sights high. I don't care how the Arab world responded to Saddam. It's just plain irrelevant. We should hold our Country to a higher standard than anyone else can. Thanks to this Administration, we failed miserably. Generally, I'm not one much for Monday-morning quarterbacks, unless the errors were avoidable. In this regard, they were. Even worse, as I stated before, they resulted from arrogance and ignorance in this Administration. Despicable. WE SHOULD DAMN WELL APOLOGIZE TO THOSE TREATED INHUMANELY. What was done was MOST un-American; again, regardless of how other countries have reacted to unrelated events.
Explain? All I said was that I thought it was an interesting email. The person clearly states that they DO NOT condone what happened at those prisons. I think this person just wants to show that it's a little hypocritical that people did not seem to want to do much when Sadam was in power, killing and torturing his own people. Regardless of why we went to war (everything appears to be for the wrong reasons) it is a good thing that Sadam and his ruling party are no longer in control. Hopefully now we will be able to see a stable Iraq where people don't always live in fear of the government. (probably won't happen for a long time though)
Define worse; We are killing more people per month, and we have killed more with WMDs in our history, as well as practicisng a greater genocide. Depends how you look at it.
And besides, you missed my point: when you're trying to defend our actions by saying we're relatively better than murderous tyrants, things aren't too good.
