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Originally Posted by Bababooyee
If you think that Saddam's regime was "progressive", you are an idiot...and worse.
Trace back to the roots of the Baath party to understand my previous comment.
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Bababooyee, his regime was both oppressive and progressive. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis learned to read due to his program against illiteracy, and health care was free in his Iraq. Being a secularist, his Iraq was also the most free nation for women to live in-- they were allowed to have jobs, go to school (which was free), drive, etc. Iraq was the only Arab country whose laws were not dictated by S'haria.
And he was a murderer and a torturer and a tyrant. No question. But I think we Americans want our good guys and our bad guys to be all one or the other, and the fact is, very few people are. The tyrant who gassed Kurds is the same one who built roads and got electricity to places that had never had it before. And a person recognizing that Saddam was a very complicated human being- innovater and tribal thug both- does not mean that person loves him and wants to have a million of his babies. It's just accepting that little in life is simple. Especially people in power. They wouldn't get there if they were.