Kola said:
Iraq had no terror groups in it's border UNTIL we came knocking to reek a revenge killing on Saddam Hussein and kicked the ant hill.
Hey kitten, Saddam was a one-man terror group in case you've forgotten.
I'd imagine these folks wouldn't agree with your statement.
The attack killed between 3,200 and 5,000 people and injured 7,000 to 10,000 more, most of them civilians.[1][2] Thousands more died of complications, diseases, and birth defects in the years after the attack.[3] The incident, which has been officially defined as an act of genocide against the Kurdish people in Iraq,[4] was and still remains the largest chemical weapons attack directed against a civilian-populated area in history.
The Halabja attack has been recognized as a separate event from the Anfal Genocide that was also conducted against the Kurdish people by the Iraqi regime under Saddam Hussein.[6] The Iraqi High Criminal Court recognized the Halabja massacre as an act of genocide on March 1, 2010, a decision welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government. The attack was also condemned as a crime against humanity by the Parliament of Canada.
The five-hour attack began in the evening of March 16, 1988, following a series of indiscriminate conventional (rocket and napalm) attacks. Iraqi MiG and Mirage aircraft began dropping chemical bombs on Halabja's residential areas, far from the besieged Iraqi army base on the outskirts of the town. According to regional Kurdish rebel commanders, Iraqi aircraft, coordinated by helicopters, conducted up to 14 bombings in sorties of seven to eight planes each. Eyewitnesses told of clouds of white, black and then yellow smoke billowing upward and rising as a column about 150 feet (46 m) in the air.
Survivors said the gas at first smelled of sweet apples[9] and reported that people died in a number of ways, suggesting a combination of toxic chemicals. Some of the victims "just dropped dead" while others "died of laughing," while still others took a few minutes to die, first "burning and blistering" or coughing up green vomit.[10] Many were injured or perished in the panic that followed the attack, especially those who were blinded by the chemicals.[11] It is believed that Iraqi forces used multiple chemical agents during the attack, including sulfur mustard (mustard gas) and nerve agents.[3] Some sources have also pointed to the blood agent hydrogen cyanide. Most of the wounded taken to hospitals in the Iranian capital Tehran were suffering from mustard gas exposure.[1]
Some consider the event as separate from the Operation Anfal (the 1986–1989 campaign conducted by Saddam's regime's in order to terrorize the Kurdish rural population and end the peshmerga rebellions by brutal means), as the Iranian troops allied to the rebels were also involved in the Halabja events. Nevertheless, the victims of the tragedy are often included in accounting the deaths attributable to the Anfal campaign, which was characterised by the widespread and indiscriminate use of chemical weapons by Iraq. Prior to the Halabja incident there were at least 21 documented smaller-scale chemical attacks against Iraqi Kurds, none of which prompted any serious response from the international community.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_chemical_attack
Kola said:
For those of you who were in your lounge chairs ,supporting this decision by Bush and Cheney at home ,while the invasion of Iraq rolled on.....I hope you NEVER have a peaceful night and that you hear the screams of the dead.
Count in your numbers virtually every member of the 'opposition party' of the US (who also voted in favor of the invasion), virtually every leader of every western nation and ally, and the members of virtually every intelligence service around the world, all of whom believed Saddam was more dangerous by the day.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again here, under the circumstances that existed at the time, I'd be in favor the invasion yet again. The occupation was a total cluster fark, but the invasion and removal of Saddam was warranted.
And thank God that back then we at least had a president who respected the law and consulted Congress before taking action.
Que the fatman man:
Bush lied, people died......but I can't provide any evidence. :roll: