Anyhow, I was doing my early morning insomniac scanning of CNN's website for news, and came across this little nugget of an
article.
(CNN) -- Documents obtained by CNN reveal the United States knew about, and even condoned, embargo-breaking oil sales by Saddam Hussein's regime, and did so to shore up alliances with Iraq's neighbors.
The oil trade with countries such as Turkey and Jordan appears to have been an open secret inside the U.S. government and the United Nations for years.
The unclassified State Department documents sent to congressional committees with oversight of U.S. foreign policy divulge that the United States deemed such sales to be in the "national interest," even though they generated billions of dollars in unmonitored revenue for Saddam's regime.
Outrage below the fold.
Wait a minute. Wait just a minute. This is the same United States that whined so hard about Oil For Food lining Saddam's pockets when, according to the statement by Rep. Menendez, the smuggling we were complicit in provided
85% of the money that Saddamn Hussein enriched himself with, compared to 15% of the supposedly corrupt-beyond-repair Oil for Food?
Sad part is, it wasn't just the Bush Admin that did this! This had been happening since sanctions were imposed in 1991! Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I like having my country to not have egg on its face when it comes to international reputation.
We may have had it on our faces when we went barging into a sovereign nation, acting just like the rogue states we so decried -- but even so, one could leave that to the benefit of the doubt, that opinions differ between parties and ideologies.
But with this, after the Bush Administration knew that we were turning a blind eye to sanction-weakening, then having the nerve to once again put this fine country's reputation out on a limb to decry the UN's Oil for Food program by demanding an inquiry into it, when the amount that Saddam was gaining was NOTHING compared to the amount we allowed in the interest of having "good allies" nearby.
I, for one, am tired of having my country dragged through the mud. How DARE you, President Bush, subject our country's good name to this crap.
How dare you.