20 Years Ago Today... The Halabja Massacre
There are those who believe it was wrong to remove Saddam Hussein.
I disagree.
Ismail Abdallah Rashid was buried two days ago in the northern Iraqi village of Halabja -- his body finally succumbed to the effects of gas attacks carried out by Saddam Hussein's forces on this day 20 years ago. Rashid becomes the latest in the still-growing toll of around 5,000 villagers from Halabja who have so far died from the chemical attacks carried out on March 16, 1988- France 24.
This is dedicated to the people of Halabja who on March 16th, 1988 suffered the worst chemical attack committed by the Iraqi regime. On that day, 5,000 innocent civilians, 75% of them women and children, immediately perished. This was not the only chemical attack ordered by Saddam, it was just the worst- Halabja.
Kurdish father Omar Khawar and his infant son, victims of Saddam Hussein’s poison gas attack on Halabja, Kurdistan (Iraq), March 16, 1988. (Halabja)
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is participating in the ceremonies for the 20th anniversary of the Halabja massacre today. Al-Maliki will raise the curtain of a monument of martyr Omar Khawar. Khawar is a Kurdish man whose picture drawn as a man embracing his dead child killed by Halabj chemical gas attack in 1988, is known as the epitome of the massive human disaster- Aswat Aliraq.
Saddam Hussein authorized the use of the "special weapons" against the Kurds.
Bloody Friday--
The Halabja attack, said to have involved mustard gas, nerve agent and possibly cyanide, killed an estimated 5,000 of the town's inhabitants. The attack on Halabja took place amidst the infamous al-Anfal campaign, in which Saddam brutally repressed yet another of the Kurdish revolts during the Iran-Iraq war. Saddam is also said to have used chemical weapons in attacking up to 24 villages in Kurdish areas in April 1987.
-To the people of Halabja- Our prayers.
Bridget Johnson asks today at Pajamas Media: "Dear Demonstrators: How About Protesting Real Genocide?"
UPDATE: The Iraqi government remebered Halabja today.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (C) and other government officials pause for a moment of silence to mark the 20th anniversary of the Halabja atrocity in 1988, during a meeting in Baghdad March 16, 2008. (Reuters)
Carter Andress, CEO and principal owner of American-Iraqi Solutions Group, writes about this 20 year anniversary from Baghdad at National Review Online.
posted by Gateway Pundit at 3/16/2008 12:24:00 AM
10 Comments:
This is not the worst attack. This is the worst attack you know about
Regardless of it being the worst attack or not - innocent people died and in my book makes this attack pretty horrific. No tears were shed from me when Saddam was brought down
But, but, the running dog, baby killing, imperialist Yankees did far worse.
"Dear Demonstrators: How About Protesting Real Genocide?"
That would be a dichotomy that would make their brains implode.
They can not because the perpetrators of those genocides happen to be some of their greatest heroes.
You're right, again, Nahanni. It's the same mindset that prevents the obamster and the kos kids from truly condemning Jeremiah Wright.
The liberals admit (painfully), when pressed, that it's "better that Hussein is gone, but the WOT is still illegal, and Conservatives are the greater evil."
Two things (at least) are anathema to liberals; acknowledging genocide perpetrated by, as Nahanni states, "some of their greatest heroes," and conceding any point, even when it is shown to be demonstrably false.
My Rebbe, the last Lubavitcher Rebbe, gave America a blessing to succeed in the 2nd Gulf War (after assuring us we would succeed in the first). Even if I didn't know all the other excellent reasons to do it (THIS being only one of many), that alone would have been enough for me to know it was the right thing to do.
Excellent post. But the "humanitarian lefties" disagree. I don't think they care how many Arabs are killed.
Anyone know where Saddam got the poison gas and the helicopters used to drop it?
The United States government still got the receipts for these two sales?
If Saddam was such a bad bastard why did the Reagan administion loan him a few billion dollars?
The poison gas came from a Dutch weapons dealer.
"Frans Van Anraat was sentenced in 2005 to 15 years in prison for complicity in war crimes for supplying raw materials that were used to make poison gas by Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the 1980-1988 war with Iran."
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0970477820070509
Hind helicopters are made by the Russians.
"The newspaper says a review of a large tranche of government documents reveals that the administrations of President Reagan and the first President Bush both authorized providing Iraq with intelligence and logistical support, and okayed the sale of dual use items — those with military and civilian applications — that included chemicals and germs, even anthrax and bubonic plague."
"A 1995 affidavit by former National Security Agency official Howard Teicher, obtained by the Post, claimed that the U.S. "actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure Iraq had the military weaponry required."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/31/world/main534798.shtml
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