Donald Trump offers praise for Saddam Hussein at North Carolina rally

Donald Trump, speaking in North Carolina, just praised deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein as a killer of terrorists, noting that Hussein “didn’t read them the rights” before executing them.

“Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? He was a bad guy. Really bad guy,” Trump begins. “But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them the rights, they didn’t talk. They were a terrorists - it was over. Today, Iraq is Harvard for terrorism.”

Hussein was labelled a major sponsor of terrorism by the American government for decades, a status that was a major plank in the rationale to invade Iraq in 2003.

At first glance this looks the same as the information I remember from the Survey Group report. On pg ES-1 and ES-2 it states that:

“The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq.”

“On occasion, the Iraqi intelligence services directly targeted the regimes perceived enemies, including non-Iraqis. Non-Iraqi casualties often resulted from Iraqi sponsorship of non-governmental terrorist groups.”

“Saddam’s regime often cooperated directly, albeit cautiously, with terrorist groups when they believed such groups could help advance Iraq’s long term goals. The regime carefully recorded its connections to Palestinian terror organizations in numerous government memos. One such example documents Iraqi financial support to families of suicide bombers in Gaza and the West Bank.”

Unless there is more as I read the full report this is the same information that the Survey Group assembled. Saddam’s concern was his own power and removing any threats to his rule. He was primarily killing Iraqis, particularly Kurds. After Gulf War I he tried to make use of Islamic terror groups if he thought that that would work to his advantage. But while he used them he was wary of them and he was working with them only because he thought it would promote his own interests. He wasn’t advancing the jihad or the Caliphate, he wasn’t an Islamist.

Where to begin... :)

>>>”ISIS running wild IS the result of these foolish decisions.”

This would be “ISIS is Bush’s fault.”

A) Not true.
B) Gift to Hillary.

Anything framing of this election around ‘we shouldn’t have gone to war in Iraq’ helps the democrats.

The rise of ISIS is the gift of Obama’s policy in Iraq and Libya.

>>”I’d rather that pig Saddam there doing his crap than ISIS.”

I’d rather neither. Saddam is ISIS with WMD, better weapons and training. Had Obama not cut and run in Iraq, ISIS would not have gotten their beginning foothold there.

However we may disagree on this perhaps we can agree:

Saddam was a genocidal mass murderer who should not be praised.

>>>”He wasn’t advancing the jihad or the Caliphate, he wasn’t an Islamist.”

If those are your three criteria, Arrafat, Bin Laden, Khomeni, Hamas and Hezbollah fail to meet all of them. Saddamist Ba’athism was marxist with the goal of a unified Arab state. Secular, but so was Hitler and Stalin.

Maybe we can agree that:

Saddam was a genocidal mass murdering dictator hell-bound on dominating all that he could without conscience in what means for weapons used. And, that praising him as an anti-terrorist (or as anything else), is wrong and definitely not a good position for presidential candidate to take.

Thanks very much for your reply.

You know, there have been times that I thought, just wipe them all out. But at the end of the Great Tribulation, when Jesus returns for the first time (Rev 20—this is the first resurrection) He does wipe them all out. ALL of them. All of those who took the Mark of the Beast. How does He do it without killing those who had been sealed by God first (Rev 7)? He gathers them to Him (probably behind His army).

Here’s a letter from the gov’t of a city where Hussein “Oh, he’s using gas!” :

“Halabja penned a letter to Trump criticizing him for his praise of the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, Rudaw reports. In July, Trump said Saddam was “so good” at killing terrorists, and in December said “Saddam Hussein throws a little gas, everyone goes crazy, ‘Oh he’s using gas!” mocking the assertions that Saddam had chemical weapons leading up to the 2003 US invasion. No weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) were ever found.”

“We would like to remind Mr. Trump that Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical gas in our city alone on March 16th, 1988 killed over 5,000 civilians, including children, women and men and wounding over 10,000 more,” the letter read.”

“In the 1980s and 1990s, Saddam’s forces brutally gassed Iraqi Kurds. Halabja was the site of one of the worst of these massacres in 1988, when between 3,200 and 5,000 Kurds died in a chemical attack, most believed to be civilians.”

“Trump has been a long time critic of the Iraq War, although records indicate much of his criticisms came after the war began.”

By AL [?] Aug 9, 2016 at Albawaba The Loop

http://www.albawaba.com/loop/iraqi-town-slams-trump-his-comments-saddam-hussein-871190

I can see why Petreaus, with the help of Mattis, would write the COIN strategy to prevent civilian deaths, but they did go a bit overboard with their ROE. If the enemy has a gun and is shooting at you, you have a right to shoot back no matter who is around. What? They didn’t hear his gun go off? Are they protecting him? Shoot him. If family is in the terrorists house, blow up the house.

“Mosul people feel relief, anxiety as liberation nears”

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/6ca3277e-8c6a-4902-9aa6-7d1cd55f1a1f.aspx?

How would they feel if they had Hussein in power knowing that they could very well be gassed but can’t get out?

DT had better start listening to people and think before he gives a speech or Hildabeast will be in the oval office. Pray an old dog can learn a few new tricks because nothing has changed much.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.