COWARDS!  LIARS!  HYPOCRITES!

I want to scream this at the top of my lungs whenever I see some
Republican Party stooge procliam their concern for the Kurdish people
in Iraq.  Where the Hell were these underhanded scoundrels when their
presidents -- Namely Ronnie Regan and George Bush the First -- were
funnelling cash and materials into Saddam Hussein's war machine in the
1980s.  Are we to believe they had no knowledge of Hussein's chemical
weapons? Did Mr. Saddam suddenly turn into a bad guy in 1990?

Underhanded though they may be, these cowards, liars and hypocrites
aren't quite stupid enough to admit to that.  But their excuse now is
to blame this on past policy "mistakes" and trumpet that it is now our
sacred duty to right these wrongs.

Bull.

The fact is these folks have not repudiated any of the policies of
their previous masters -- the policies that aided and abetted the
ruthless Iraqi dictator's genocide.  In fact, they're pursuing the
*same* policies as before; supporting "friendly" dictators like
Musharraf in Pakistan, for example.  It's all business as usual as far
as the White House is concerned.  Even the same people from those
"mistaken" administrations are now major players in the current one:
Richard Perle, John Negroponte, John Poindexter -- key players in the
Iran-Contra scandal in which our government funded and supported
Central American terrorists (a criminal enterprise also excused as
merely a "mistake of the past").  Not to mention Colin Powell, Dick
Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld -- who was Regan's pointman in Baghdad in
the 1980's, and who helped pave the way for U.S.  aid and intelligence
to start flowing to Hussien.  (Notice how these conservatives always
bring up the Kurds, but rarely mention the Iranians -- many more of
whom were gassed and murdered by Iraqi chemical weaponry.)

So the next time some reactionary fool starts crying crocodile tears
over the Kurds of Northern Iraq, ask them what happens after the
presumed U.S. military victory in Iraq.  If bringing freedom and
democracy is paramount in the squalid little schemes of George W. Bush
and his right-wing goon squad, then what happens if the Kurdish people
demand their independence -- as is their absolute right? What happens
if Turkey objects to this -- and that goverment surely will -- and
tries to suppress any independence movement in Kurdistan with force? No
doubt it will stupefy or infuriate them, because they haven't thought
these things out beyond the immediate emotional gratification of
'giving it' to Saddam Hussein.  That's often the case with cowards,
liars and hypocrites.

-Timmy Ramone