Don Rumsfeld was still at it Sunday on the news show circuit, selling his version of history.
To hear him tell it, Muamar Khadaffi was scared stiff by the Iraq invasion, the winkling out of Saddam Hussein from his spidy-hole, and subsequent execution.
Truth to tell, Khadaffi started getting downright domesticated in the 1990s, and after 9/11, acted as an informer on terrorist operations. Before Saddam was winkled out of his spidey-hole, December 13, 2003, the UN had removed sanctions on Libya. And Saddam was not executed until December 30,. 2006.
Everything Don Rumsfeld says is filtered through Republican mesh. He quoted Secretary Gates, who is still a Republican and a holdover from the lame duck years of George W. Bush, and who was making the rounds Sunday as a team with Hillary Clinton. He studiously avoided mention of Clinton. Hear no Democrat, see no Democrat, speak no Democrat. If one is in the room, avert the eyes.
Truth is, another reason for the Iraq invasion was to teach home truths to recalcitrant nations like Iran and North Korea, on the principle that to bully one little kid on the playground bullies all of them. Invading North Korea or Iran would open up a whole new can of worms that might possibly lead to world war, and so Iraq was the weaker target. This is in despite of information the government possessed prior to invasion showing closer al Quaeda connections to Iran than to Iraq.
The problem with all that is that the lesson taught and learned is that said recalcitrant nations need nuclear weapons in self-defense, to discourage future invasion by the United States.
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