Saddam Hussein should have been left to run Iraq, says CIA officer who interrogated him

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Both President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump believe the United States never should have invaded Iraq in 2o03 (or, at least, Trump claims he now does). The war in Iraq and its chaotic aftermath in many ways prefigure the present moment in the Middle East; it triggered a sectarian unraveling that now haunts both Iraq and Syria and looms large in the minds of an Obama administration wary of further intervention in the region's conflicts.

In a new book coming out this month, John Nixon, a former CIA officer who interrogated Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein after he was captured by coalition forces in December 2003, details his encounter with the toppled despot and the varied discussions that followed. Early on, Hussein warned that the occupation of Iraq wouldn't be as much of a "cakewalk" as Washington's neoconservatives assumed at the time. From an excerpt published on Time magazine's website:

When I interrogated Saddam, he told me: “You are going to fail. You are going to find that it is not so easy to govern Iraq.” When I told him I was curious why he felt that way, he replied: “You are going to fail in Iraq because you do not know the language, the history, and you do not understand the Arab mind.”

Nixon now reckons Hussein had a point and that a ruthless strongman like him was necessary to "maintain Iraq's multi-ethnic state" and keep both Sunni extremism and the power of Shiite-led Iran, a Hussein foe, at bay.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/12/16/saddam-hussein-should-have-been-left-to-run-iraq-says-cia-officer-who-interrogated-him/?tid=pm_world_pop&utm_term=.d5c14b474cd2

[Wellstone ruled]

1. So true!!!!!

[Captain1way]

2. I agree

Seems like a no-brainer at the time

[WhiteTara]

3. We knew it at the time...but *co was determined to

have their war...Oil and Daddy were the big reasons.

[oberliner]

4. He does not actually say that

He talks about the pros and cons of each.

[Hoyt]

5. My late wife worked for a bunch of former Iraqi engineers who moved here. She

She asked them how they felt about the invasion shortly after Saddam was captured. They said, "bush has created a hundred Saddams and it is not likely we can ever return to our country now."

Seems like everyone -- except bush, cheney, bolton, etc. -- knew the truth.

[malaise]

11. That simple n/t

[Crepuscular]

6. One could make the case

that the same thing is true in Syria. Given our dismal track record for "nation building", maybe we should stop getting involved in stirring the pot in that portion of the globe.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. Don't disagree

Syria like Iraq is rather multi-ethnic or at least has multiple religious sects. Iraqi Christians and Yazdis were safer under Saddam. Not so now at least in areas under ISIS control.

Likewise Syria has minority Christian sects that are under threat by ISIS.

[progressoid]

8. Except that we aren't trying to nation build in Syria.

[Crepuscular]

9. Sure about that?

It's been the Presidents stated policy that Assad needs to be removed from power and there are reports that the CIA has been fomenting secular strife in Syria for a long time, as a means of undermining Assad's government. There are other ways to "build nations" then invading.

[FarCenter]

10. Or divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states per Joe Biden's suggestion