THE HOUSE OF SADDAM

Last Wednesday we saw the first instalment of a dramatisation that I thought would be a portrayal of Saddam Hussein that would lend legitimacy to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, while leaving out certain uncomfortable facts about how we created Saddam Hussein during the 1980’s. Last week ended in 1980. Last night it began in 1988 and ended in 1991.

So what happened between 1980 and 1988?

I have before me a copy of "Spider’s Web : The Secret History of how The White House Illegally Armed Iraq" by Alan Friedman. Book One covers that period, and details how we covertly armed Iraq during the Iraq-Iran War.

The edition I have does not contain the photograph below, showing good buddies Donald Rumsfeld and Saddam Hussein meeting in 1983 for Rumsfeld to sell some rather nasty chemicals useful to the Iraqi military. Rumsfeld, as member of PNAC, would later campaign for the removal of Saddam Hussein.

After two episodes of The House of Saddam I think the BBC is again being shamelessly used to justify an illegal war.