Why ‘old Europe’ stood by Saddam
Your columnist’s assumption that revenge is the motivation for excluding France, Germany, and Russia from the table of reconstruction in Iraq is way off base.
America, and some of the 62 nations that chose to support us, have shed blood in the freeing of Iraq. France, Germany and Russia chose to oppose us every step of the way. Why? Because of the billions of dollars worth of weapons sold to Iraq on credit against the sanctions of the UN.
Don’t give me this holier-than-thou stuff about probable cause. There are too many mass graves being dug up to listen to that claptrap.
Their motivation to keep this despot in power was the money they were owed. They couldn’t care less about the Iraqi people.
And don’t try to tell me it’s America who is the beneficiary of this war. It is the Iraqi people who lost thousands of relatives and could not sleep too well at night wondering if they would be next. That fear is gone. All that is left is a handful of terrorists who will be dealt with. Old Europe seems to have a short memory when it comes to who its friends are. We didn’t hear complaints about the Yankee dollars that we spent helping to rebuild it through the Marshall Plan. I guess that was different.
Bertie Ahern should be ashamed of himself. While we were asking for help he was busy objecting to our efforts. It was only after some arm-twisting that he allowed planes refuel at Shannon thus pumping more Yankee dollars into your economy. Now he is quoted as saying “a brutal dictator who brought suffering to his people is gone“.
What really gripes ‘old Europe’ is that they want to re-emerge as America’s equal through the EU. You are dreaming. Europe hasn’t agreed about anything for more than 50 years. You can’t frame a constitution because Germany and France want to be the big kids on campus. Some things never change.
John Murphy,
Sandy,
Utah,
USA.
