[jocon307]

"If I, a little old lady in the rural Ozarks of Missouri, knew over a year ago that something was mighty hinky about that scurrilious oil-for-food program, Safire the cosmopolitan MUST have had a clue."

Now, that is a great post. It is to enable remarks like this to be made that Free Republic exists.

[Judith Anne]

Well, thanks jocon307. ;-D

Actually, when I first heard about the program, I thought it was a way for Saddam to enrich himself and make under-the-table deals, and doubted the people of Iraq would benefit.

When I heard (in the mid 90s, I think) that the people were starving and didn't have a lot of the necessary medicines, I was sure of that.

When I read, around 2002 that Kofi Annan was, as head of the UN, the administrator of the oil for food program, I realized that was the reason there would never be real pressure from the UN for Saddam to give up his WMD, which I am sure he transported to Syria et al, and also realized that NO weapons would ever be found by the UN inspectors (I spit when I say "UN inspectors").

When I read further that the books on the Oil-for-food program had been shifted from country to country every year, and never actually audited, I thought to myself, what a bleeping piece of work that Kofi Annan is...what a murderer...what an evil man...

The UN is, in my opinion, the most fetid, foul, pus-filled association imaginable. And US taxpayers actually are forced to support it through tax dollars.

Some days, I feel like the dog. Other days, I feel like the hydrant.