Date: Wed, 07 Dec 2005
To: letters@globeandmail.ca
From: Geoffrey Smith
Subject: Irony and silence

I find it more than annoying that commentaries on the trial of Saddam Hussein miss the irony of the anonymous female witness describing her torture in 1982 at the hands of the regime (Globe and Mail: Dec. 6). News reports and editorials thus far fail to mention that Hussein had an important ally at that juncture--the United States. So in standing behind the show trial of the tyrant Hussein, the Bush administration should admit the significant support the Reagan administration gave Hussein two decades ago in his war against the radical Ayatollahs in Shiite Iran. Sadly, that American support emboldened Saddam in his horrific treatment of Iraqi ethnic minorities and political dissidents. Indeed, one of the defendants currently on trial with Hussein is, yes, U.S. MIddle Eastern policy in the last quarter-century.

Geoff Smith
Kingston