Another Whopper

One of the propaganda whoppers heard before the second war on Iraq was: "He gassed his own people." Hearing this charge for the first time, some folks automatically thought of the Waco Compound, where a leader of a nation did just that.

The diabolical lie targeted Saddam Hussein in a memorable and effective fabrication - propaganda ploy. Saddam was accused then, and in his trial now, of gassings the Kurds, who were not really his people considering how they resisted integration into Iraq and have long agitated for independence and revolted to establish their own nation. The Kurds have been in an incessant insurrection.

Yes, the Kurds in Iraq were gassed, but Saddam is not to blame. The unfortunate action took place during the long Iraq-Iran war when Iranian soldiers advanced across the border of Iraq into Halabja in Kurdish territory.

Iranian gas killed the Kurds!

The U.S. Army War College sent investigators to check out the stories and find the truth. They reported that the gas used was not mustard gas, as employed by Iraq. The gas found in the corpses was that used by the Iranian Army - phosphine gas.

In the terrible war between Iran and Iraq, both sides used gas on the battlefield. Mustard gas by Iraq; phosphine gas by Iran.

At the time of the investigation, U.S. policy supported Saddam's Iraq. After we became Saddam's enemy, the War College report was ignored and passed over by the Shock & Awe people - for obvious and devious reasons.

The report of the Army War College was published in "Iraq Power and U.S. Security in the Middle East," by the Strategic Studies Institute.

More proof that Saddam didn't gas his own is revealed by senior CIA policy analyst Thomas Pelletiere, who went to Halabja and verified that the gassing was done inadvertently during a battle between the Iraqi and Iranian armies in which the insurgent Kurds were fighting alongside the Iranians.

Now, with Saddam on trial for this specific "crime," we can watch and see if the judge and court allows the Army War College report to be submitted as defense evidence.


Thoughts While Jaywalking

* Daily smog report: The Rocky Anderson stuff is thick today. Maybe you shouldn't move to St. George!

* On this date in 1979, President Jimmy Carter successfully defended himself from a killer rabbit swimming near his boat. He swings a mean oar.

* The good people trying to prevent the Divine Strake explosion at the Nevada test site should embrace their compatriots working to ban depleted uranium (DU) in Iraq.

* Watch for it: the WIN button is coming back soon.

* Medicare patients who are dying spend less time in the hospital in Utah than in any other state. Draw your own conclusions from that statistic.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.