December 02, 2003
ALWAYS GET A MISSILE DEAL IN WRITING
Remember how UN sanctions were screwing over the Iraqis, leaving them with no money to buy medicine and food? Turns out Saddam Hussein had a spare $10 million lying around, which he blew on non-existent North Korean missiles:
It was Saddam Hussein's last weapons deal - and it didn't go exactly as planned.
For two years before the United States-led invasion, the Iraqi leader's sons, generals and front companies held negotiations with North Korea to acquire missiles.
But as the war approached, Saddam discovered what US officials have known for nearly a decade - the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, is a less than reliable negotiating partner.
In return for a $10 million down payment, Saddam appears to have received nothing.
Nor did any Iraqis. Saddam (and all the western media who fell for the sanctions stories) lied! People died!
Posted by Tim Blair at December 2, 2003 01:55 AMDon't Saddam and little fat Kim realise that their is no such thing as the axis of evil, and these countries in no way cooperate in any way which could be construed as an axis?
The Guardian reported a Chris Patten interview a couple of years ago and I quote "Besides balking at the word "evil", he disputes whether the three countries named are an axis at all, insisting there is no evidence that they are working together "
Posted by: Ross at December 2, 2003 at 02:14 AMIf you replace "working together" with "screwing each other over", ding Ding DING! We got a match!
Hey it even works if you apply it to Iran /Iraq relations.
Not proven yet but I bet someday we will find out that Kim screwed over the Ayatollah also. Or visa versa.
Posted by: papertiger at December 2, 2003 at 02:31 AMSo that's why the inspections are going so well -- the weapons are non-existent!
Bush lied, etc, etc.
Posted by: Robert at December 2, 2003 at 02:38 AMThank you very much, Robert "Leave Saddam in Power" Corr.
Posted by: tim at December 2, 2003 at 03:42 AMPre-emptive strike on the sanctions issue:
Propagandizing Sanctions
by Matthew McAllester of Newsday, May 24, 2003, Sun Journal via Newsday (Google cache)
Saddam's parades of dead babies are exposed as a cynical charade
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/05/25/wirq25.xml
by Charlotte Edwards, filed May 25, 2003, the Telegraph (UK)
Suffer The Children
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,6600315%255E25717,00.html
by Andrew Bolt, June 16, 2003, Herald Sun Australia)
Confessions of an Anti-Sanctions Activist
http://www.meforum.org/article/548
by Charles M. Brown, Summer 2003, Middle East Forum
Oops. One more try.
Propagandizing Sanctions
by Matthew McAllester of Newsday, May 24, 2003, Sun Journal via Newsday (Google cache)
It's a good thing he didn't spend the $10 million on Korean or Chinese food. Everyone knows your just going to be hungry 30 minutes later anyways.
Posted by: derf at December 2, 2003 at 06:53 AMIt was Saddam Hussein's last weapons deal - and it didn't go exactly as planned.
Actually, this was Saddam's second to last weapons deal.
His last weapons deal resulted in the early delivery of a large amount of American and British munitions. That one didn't exactly go according to Saddam's plan either.
Posted by: R. C. Dean at December 2, 2003 at 07:14 AMMaybe Saddam's got a cancelled check or money order stub. If not, I couldn't see Judge Judy even hearing the case.
(Yet another sterling example of why I read this blog daily without fail.)
'Iraq: Exclusive, Our reporters were with the rebel commandos who hit the DHL cargo plane. They fired missles at the Airbus'. A slideshow is proudly displayed on their website and the images have been showcased on nightly news shows. French journalists lead the resistance against nasty American GIs! Sing the Marseillaise!
- from MerdeinFrance.blogspot.com
Sounds like Saddam is still making arms deals to me.
Posted by: papertiger at December 2, 2003 at 03:10 PMYou should have heard the weeping when President Bush reported his thanksgiving visit in Afghanistan. Hair pulling and open wailing lamentations on the streets of Paris.
Their plans all for not. French Reporters crying the loudest.
Tiger: he went to Iraq, not Afghanistan. Hilary Clinton went to Afghanistan. Then she went to Iraq... A lot of the hair-pulling is from those who reckon the whole thing was Bush's Evil Plot to upstage Hils, because of course with all that's going on upstaging a senator from New York is the most important thing on George's mind.
Posted by: Andrea Harris at December 2, 2003 at 09:25 PMQuite right, switched Iraq for Afgan. I can find them on a map though, honest.
Posted by: papertiger at December 3, 2003 at 03:05 AM