Belly,

Are you intimating that Iraq is better off now?

Having had it's infrastructure blasted into the dark ages, it's people traumatised and scattered to neighbouring countries and further afield, bombings every other day?

The US was happy to do business with Saddam when they knew he was gassing Iranians.

They should have known they'd be a huge vacuum in the wake of their invasion - a vacuum that still exists.

They poked their nose in for influence over resources under the guise of altruism, the US action destabilised this country.

Here's what happens when countries are destabilised by external forces.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-07-05/iraq-bloodshed-surge/4796218

csteele,
Where do you get the idea I slander the Jewish people? I have a nephew a Orthodox Rabbi and several members of family. Most Jews have lived in Western society. The Government of Israel is democtatic in Western style values even involving members who oppose the State of Israel.

Poirot are you then inferring we should not have both installed Saddam and removed him?
Are the current troubles a result of the west?
17 deaths in Egypt over night.
Crowds after prayers, milling in the street.
Muslim brother hood calling for martyrdom.
Hate in the pure rage on both sides, and spitting on western camera men.
Why is the much trampled on south African continent not this bad?
Why not us?
Why suffered in our formative years from a British Imperialism that was just plain cruel.
India, home of Gandhi, fought for every right we take for granted why has that not left them victims of the west.
Poirot it is my view the old left is lost, forever.
I was part of a left that would have cried about inequity's that today seem orphaned.
The dead clothing workers, the life of women all over the third world.
And the victim making, taking any anti west thought and building a well of ignorance to let the west take the blame.
Accountability and, the very freedom to be educated without being indoctrinated by a fantasy religious view that kills cultures, and harms its followers.

Belly old mate,

You aren't going to get much from sense from Poirot. Although she will vehemently deny it she has a deeply entrenched anti-Western mindset.

In her reading of Genesis the West was the snake in the Garden of Eden.

______________________________________________

Poirot,

<<Here's what happens when countries are destabilised by external forces>>

Yes, yes, yes -- soooo much neater to have a megalomaniacal dictator keeping things in check.

An ironclad guaranteed of no strikes, no protests, and no Shites or Kurds causing a nuisance --BRAVO!

Belly, SPQR,

It doesn't really matter which way we argue this. On both sides there will be examples that don't hold water.

Mubarak is also an example of a megalomaniac who kept things in check, - backed by the West.

The West does business with these "megalomaniacs" depending on the West's agenda at the time.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

(Interestingly, the above article touches on the muted response by the US to Iraq targeting Iranians with chemical weapons - Reagan's initial response to that was to send out a directive to heighten cooperation to protect oil facilities. These were the administration's priorities)

Says it all really.