Yep.....fair accurate and intelligently presented points Matt.......as far as they go.

The fact is that the US\UK gave every ounce of support to Saddam it could think of......Why?

Because Iraq was at war with Iran, and the Iranian revolution had humiliated the US worldwide... and the US was out for Vengeance.

There is no discussion about WHY the Iranian nation rose up and overthrew the Shah........never has been, never will be.........because to do so would bring to the fore some very unpleasent facts about US foriegn policy at that time that no-one in power, then or now, want the US public to think about.

You make the point that Saddam (secular dictatorship) was the lesser of the two evils (Barbarous theocracy)......perhaps so.........

But it was still Evil....( as you yourself acknowledge) .... and our foriegn policy was in knowing and full support of that evil.

That example......... and dozens of others I can think of off the top of my head ........is WHY people like OBL and (God help us). Saddam Hussien are regarded as Hero's by the average Muslim in the Street.

Our governments actively and knowingly support evil deeds and regimes around the world, have done so in the past, and do so today.
Those on the recieveing end of these policies ( Most of the Muslim world, and large chunks of the rest of it too) are fully aware of this.

Until we ourselves awknowledge that this is the case, re-examine our past and present actions, and take back control of our foriegn and domestic policies from those who have so mis-used them we are in real deep trouble.

We all assume that our governments are dedicated to furthering certain values in the rest of the world, multi-party democracies, a free press and so on.

The fact is they are not.

A few weeks ago some sort of senior Washington foriegn policy wonk......( didn't recognise his name, and can't recall it now, I know he most certainly had never faced an election to determine if he was a fit and proper person to wield the power\influence he had over US Policy)...... stated , wirth remarkable candour I thought, in an interview on a BBC current affairs programme........that with very rare exceptions, Us foriegn policy was not now, and never had been to further US values like democracy, free elections, freedom from oppression etc etc. around the world.

US foriegn policy was run to further "US interests"

When asked to define what those interests were he listed....

Any commodity the Us imported ....like oil....... had to be as cheap as possible....

Any country US corporations were thinking of investing in had to have a pliant, subservient workforce who would accept a pittance for long hours..... ( and he added that if it took a police state to bring about those conditions, well that was just fine and dandy by the US)....

And so on.... he also added that , for more advanced nations or groups of nations, US interests required that they be forced to accept American goods and services in thier market places whether or not the peoples of those countries wanted them.... A good example here is GM crops and technologies...most of Europe... ( Surveys repeatedly demonstrate that around 80 per cent of people when asked..) .. Do not want GM crops, hormone stuffed beef etc anywhere near them... But we are forced to take it...

and the so-called free-market solution to this sort of problem... Ie.. "if you don't like it... don't buy it".......will not be allowed to operate.......because we are barred.. at US insistence... from labelling food stuffs as containing GM products etc.

Then there is the Question of Banana's, might seem humourous right now...

It won't be once a group of Caribbean islands are reduced to utter destitution because a US billionaire doesn't think he is rich enough.

That particular issue is going to come back and bite you guys real hard.

The point is Matt.... your governments foriegn policy... and for that matter my own... has not been run in the interests of your nation.... it has been run, by and large, in the selfish, short term interests of powerful groups, like Corporations, who are neither elected by, nor accountable too, the electorate of the US.

The time is long overdue for the public to sieze back control of public policies.

regards...:)