Juan Cole: Fisking the "War on Terror"

[Bark Bark Bark]

Juan Cole presents an excellent "The War Against Terror (TWAT) For Dummies" history lesson that--ironically--links Saddam Hussein to 9-11, but not the way NeoCons would like.

http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/fisking-war-on-terror-once-upon-time.html

Not content with creating a vast terrorist network to harass the Soviets, Reagan then pressured the late King Fahd of Saudi Arabia to match US contributions. He had earlier imposed on Fahd to give money to the Contras in Nicaragua, some of which was used to create rightwing death squads. (Reagan liked to sidestep Congress in creating private terrorist organizations for his foreign policy purposes, which he branded "freedom fighters," giving terrorists the idea that it was all right to inflict vast damage on civilians in order to achieve their goals).

...

Reagan also decided to build up Saddam Hussein in Iraq as a counterweight to Khomeinist Iran, authorizing US and Western companies to send him precursors for chemical and biological weaponry. At one point Donald Rumsfeld was sent to Iraq to assure Saddam that it was all right if he used chemical weapons against the Iranians. Reagan had no taste in friends.

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In 1998, al-Qaeda and al-Jihad al-Islami, two small terrorist groups established in Afghanistan as a result of the Reagan jihad, declared war on the United States and Israel (the "Zionists and Crusaders"). After attacks by al-Qaeda cells on US embassies in East Africa and on the USS Cole, nineteen of them ultimately used jet planes to attack the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

If you aren't already highly familiar with these events, read--hell, copy--this. It'll come in VERY handy in future debates with Freeptards and Dittoheads. Dazzling with brilliance doesn't always trump baffling with bullshit--as several elections prove--but it can't hurt.

[jbfam4]

1. Juan Cole tells it like it is.

Interesting that Orrin Hatch helped give the Muslim radicals better weapons and Rumsfeld told Saddam it was OK to use chemicals on the Iranians. Juan Cole tells it like it is.