AIBU to think Saddam Hussein contained evil?

[LeahSMS]

Did he contain evil? If he hadn’t of been killed would Isis have got this far?

"Some really nasty prejudiced comments on this thread"

Such as? Most of the comments seem very reasonable.

@brahumbug the deleted comments, including yours

I think he was a pretty rotten cork that kept worse in the bottle.

I think that’s what the great saviours of the west forgot to factor in - the let the genies out of the bottle. They either didn’t listen to or chose to ignore people who knew the area. Yes he was a monster - but there were more waiting in the wings to take over.

And it’s not unusual for families to be sent the bill for execution bullets in the ME (so not just Saddam's regime). It’s the source of a lot of black humour jokes in the ME.

Yes he did but with his own brand of evil. The reason Iraq became such a shitstorm, which IS took advantage of, is not because Sadam was removed but because no thought whatsoever was given to managing the country once he was defeated.

He was evil but no more than the one in Israel right now. They are all bad as each other, and don’t give me it’s not about oil. USA will go anywhere where they can sniff some oil the mad gun yanks.

brahumbug the deleted comments, including yours.
What the hell is wrong with my comment? The only thing I have criticized is a religion? Who cares about that? I have never criticized a group collectively, merely a philosophical position. Islam is a hateful, homophobic, mysoginistic religion, just like Christianity and Judaism. If you can't see that then you are wilfully blind. I dislike islam, not muslims, for whom I have a great deal of sympathy. In the same way I detest catholicism, but have nothing against catholics .

Or Saudi. A bad bunch but god knows what else is waiting on the wings (considering the ideological roots of daesh).

Not a fan of Netanyahu but he isnt anywhere near Saddam. His gassing of thousands of Kurds, mass imprisonments, torture. Somebody reminded me of Comical Ali the other day. Remember him?

Saddam's Anfal genocide.

And now it might kick off again with another war against Iran. I have no time for the ayatollahs, but the poor Iranian people, they don't deserve that kind of destruction.

Israel is killing the Palestinians slowly and surely, how does he not compare to saddam?

As for the bigot disliking Islam or catholics, you are an ignorant idiot who should be reported.

I think all dictators "contain evil" to some extent.

I was reading a book recently that touched on the differences in the Democrayic Republic of Congo during and after Mobutu Sese Seko's leadership. It's interesting how order (even if led by a genocidal maniac) is often less damaging, both economically and socially, than the chaos that occurs once a power vacuum has been created.

@Katex888 wow - not cool.

Thankfully I’ve never been bombed but have family who have had this (not that long ago - some in their 40s) as well as my parents (ww2).

I think that by “contained” OP means kept in check and to a certain extent if we just mean ISIS then yes he did, as did Gadaffi in Libya.
The spread of ISIS has partly been down to a power vacuum in some places after a dictator has been removed - I know a lovely Libyan family who had to flee ISIS but had been quite prosperous under Gadaffi. They said that they didn’t support him but just kept their heads down and got on with their lives and as they didn’t bother Gadaffi then Gadaffi didn’t bother them (as one of them put it) . I’m sure that wasn’t the case for everyone though but for this family the danger for them was from ISIS and civil war, which weren’t a problem under Gadaffi or Sadam Hussein.
Obviously nobody wants to live in a dictatorship and I’m sure it was dangerous for a lot of people but given a choice between living under Sadam or ISIS I know which I would choose

I don’t think nice people are dictators! They rule by oppression, fear and violence.

Even under the Shah there were prisons for political rivals and people ‘disappeared’. What came was a million times worse and it could have been stopped if the west decided to get involved (they were already neck deep in the oil trade there whilst it suited).

Israel is killing the Palestinians slowly and surely, how does he not compare to saddam?

As for the bigot disliking Islam or catholics, you are an ignorant idiot who should be reported.
No sorry, not a bigot, I specifically said I have nothing against muslims or catholics, they are people. I loath religions such as catholicism or islam, they are poison, like all religions. I agree that the treatment of the Palestinians is dreadful, when did I say it was acceptable? Netanyahu should be ashamed of himself for his actions. I just don't think that the Iranian people deserve to be bombed into oblivion.

Do read mt posts before commenting.

The oil thing is correct. Saddam was selling oil cheaper than the US/OPEC and driving prices down. US were making less profit hence they wanted rid.

I don’t think Saddam was evil. I think we have different (higher) standards of humanity in the West now but you only need to look back in fairly recent history to realise that we had some pretty “evil” leaders too.

"SH was not a Christian, but respected the right to practice."

I bet you the 65%-70% of Iraq's majority Shia Muslims would take exception to that.

SH banned Shia commemoration events around Ashura and Arbaeen. These have only recently been in full practice since SH was captured from the gutter he hid in.

SH and ISIS are one an the same = they are evil Sunni terrorists. Period.

Even the Shia knew that although he was a complete shit, it was a case of better the complete shit you know.

SH and ISIS were definitely not the same. SH would have happily killed off isis given the chance. During the 80s he was the wests favourite due to his war on Iran.

During the 80s he was the wests favourite due to his war on Iran.
Not just for "his" war on Iran. He was given a list of about 200 people university lecturers, activists and what have you by US intelligence. The people on the list were all detained, judged and found guilty in kangaroo courts, and hanged live on prime-time television. From then until Mrs Thatcher's meeting with George Bush senior just prior to the first Gulf war, the US loved him. Then suddenly the UK media was full of his villainy.

Weird you posted this, it now looks like yet another bloody uprising taking place in Iraq this week

Thatcher even supported the Khmer Rouge, but it just weirdly isnt talked about.

Mates with general pinochet...