Reality Check for Operation Iraqi Freedom II

[Zaknafien]

Oh and by the way, I used to be a staunch neo-conservative, flag-waving, bush-saluting maniac who watched fox news 24/7. For years I believed in the advancement of the american empire.

I think the famous quote is about the only ones who are pro-war are those who havent seen it?

[Lemur]

Oh and by the way, I used to be a staunch neo-conservative, flag-waving, bush-saluting maniac who watched fox news 24/7. For years I believed in the advancement of the american empire.

I would caution you, as a fellow Orgah, to avoid swinging to the opposite extreme. There is much to love about America, and much that is unique. Everything in the world is not our fault. Everything we do is not mired in greed and venality.

Don't hand patriotism and its trappings to the far right; they deserve the mantle less than most.

[Gawain of Orkeny]

Here here Lemur. Whats happening. Have I been bitten by a Lemur?

[Del Arroyo]

Sadaam was never ever good for Iraq. Iraq's happiest days were before he came to power. The Baath Party did do a number of good things for Iraq-- but as for Sadaam, he fought a losing war against Iran, a disastrous war against the Western coalition, and starved his own people in the name of national pride all the while building bigger and more extravagant Palaces of Pleasure for himself. Dozens of these palaces were built during the years of the sanctions regime, using money that was earmarked to provide food, clothing, and medicine for the Iraqi people.

Sadaam never was and never could be in any way good for Iraq. The disaster which has resulted from the US's wishful thinking is an entirely separate matter.

[Lemur]

Sadaam never was and never could be in any way good for Iraq. The disaster which has resulted from the US's wishful thinking is an entirely separate matter.

Quoted for shock and awe.

[Whacker]

Quoted for shock and awe.

Well this thread has been bombed and shot to pieces so....

[Zaknafien]

Sadaam was never ever good for Iraq. Iraq's happiest days were before he came to power. The Baath Party did do a number of good things for Iraq-- but as for Sadaam, he fought a losing war against Iran, a disastrous war against the Western coalition, and starved his own people in the name of national pride all the while building bigger and more extravagant Palaces of Pleasure for himself. Dozens of these palaces were built during the years of the sanctions regime, using money that was earmarked to provide food, clothing, and medicine for the Iraqi people.

Sadaam never was and never could be in any way good for Iraq. The disaster which has resulted from the US's wishful thinking is an entirely separate matter.

While all that is true, its not the whole story.

We are never told that he led an extensive modernization program of Iraq that included:

* He redirected the control of Iraqi oil from international monopolies so that Iraq would receive their oil revenues, which caused a huge economic boom to the country.
* Iraq started providing social services to its citizens that were unprecedented in the middle east.
* He established a campaign to eradicate illiteracy from Iraq and free education became compulsory to the highest educational levels.
* The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free health care to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers.
* Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

[Gawain of Orkeny]

We are never told that he led an extensive modernization program of Iraq that included:

* He redirected the control of Iraqi oil from international monopolies so that Iraq would receive their oil revenues, which caused a huge economic boom to the country.
* Iraq started providing social services to its citizens that were unprecedented in the middle east.
* He established a campaign to eradicate illiteracy from Iraq and free education became compulsory to the highest educational levels.
* The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free health care to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers.
* Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Linky please

You do realise your job in itself is an oxi moron.

Military Intelligence indeed

[Zaknafien]

don't I know it.. I do have access to lots of records and things though..

from wiki:

t the center of this strategy was Iraq's oil. On June 1, 1972, Saddam oversaw the seizure of international oil interests, which, at the time, dominated the country's oil sector. A year later, world oil prices rose dramatically as a result of the 1973 energy crisis, and skyrocketing revenues enabled Saddam to expand his agenda.
Promoting women's literacy and education in the 1970s
Promoting women's literacy and education in the 1970s

Within just a few years, Iraq was providing social services that were unprecedented among Middle Eastern countries. Saddam established and controlled the "National Campaign for the Eradication of Illiteracy" and the campaign for "Compulsory Free Education in Iraq," and largely under his auspices, the government established universal free schooling up to the highest education levels; hundreds of thousands learned to read in the years following the initiation of the program. The government also supported families of soldiers, granted free hospitalization to everyone, and gave subsidies to farmers. Iraq created one of the most modernized public-health systems in the Middle East, earning Saddam an award from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[11][12]

To diversify the largely oil-based Iraqi economy, Saddam implemented a national infrastructure campaign that made great progress in building roads, promoting mining, and developing other industries. The campaign revolutionized Iraq's energy industries. Electricity was brought to nearly every city in Iraq, and many outlying areas.

Before the 1970s, most of Iraq's people lived in the countryside, where Saddam himself was born and raised, and roughly two-thirds were peasants. But this number would decrease quickly during the 1970s as the country invested much of its oil profits into industrial expansion.

Nevertheless, Saddam focused on fostering loyalty to the Ba'athist government in the rural areas. After nationalizing foreign oil interests, Saddam supervised the modernization of the countryside, mechanizing agriculture on a large scale, and distributing land to peasant farmers.[6] The Ba'athists established farm cooperatives, in which profits were distributed according to the labors of the individual and the unskilled were trained. The government's commitment to agrarian reform was demonstrated by the doubling of expenditures for agricultural development in 1974-1975. Moreover, agrarian reform in Iraq improved the living standard of the peasantry and increased production, though not to the levels for which Saddam had hoped.

Saddam became personally associated with Ba'athist welfare and economic development programs in the eyes of many Iraqis, widening his appeal both within his traditional base and among new sectors of the population. These programs were part of a combination of "carrot and stick" tactics to enhance support in the working class, the peasantry, and within the party and the government bureaucracy.

Saddam's organizational prowess was credited with Iraq's rapid pace of development in the 1970s; development went forward at such a fevered pitch that two million persons from other Arab countries and Yugoslavia worked in Iraq to meet the growing demand for labor.