Trump praises Saddam Hussein's efficient killing of 'terrorists,'

[Benton]

(07-07-2016, 12:07 AM)Millhouse Wrote: I disagree in large part due to the fact we decimated his military in the first Gulf War. Even though he still enough power to remain in power, he didnt have a security appartus to deal with groups like ISIS and his other enemies like he had prior to 1991. He had anything but a stable government post 1991.

What is setting the Middle East back right now is the Syrian civil war, which allowed ISIS to fester and grow like gangrene on a wounded leg. If Syria never imploded like it did, Iraq would be better off post- Saddam and ISIS never would have evolved like is unfortunately has. 

Regardless though, until those countries learn to separate religion and their governments, they will always be 'set back' compared to the rest of the world.

All that said, Trump is a buffoon. Hillary sucks. Worst presidential nominees that I can think of without looking it up going back to the 1910s-1920s.

Saddam (and a handful of other dictators through the 60s-80s) provided stable governments. Some of that weakened naturally over time, some as those dictators died off or weakened, and some through intervention (like the U.S. invading Iraq). The Baath party (which Saddam was part of) helped force a cooperation between Sunni and Shia. You either did as the government said or — regardless of sect — you were punished. Yeah, Sunni folks had a better end of things, but the system kept going. And with some peace, people were able to go to school or get jobs and potentially move out of the area if they wanted.

2003 changed that. With a pretty limited understanding of the differences in 600ish years of tribal and religious affairs, the U.S. government unintentionally drew more dividing lines between Sunni and Shia. Removal of Baath party members essentially took out local and state leadership, which led to a free for all in Iraq that spiraled out to other countries. Even worse, a good number of former Saddam's Sunni leadership are thought to have gone to groups after 2004 who eventually merged with ISIS, prefering to keep it Sunni and exterminate the majority Shia populations.

In Syria , Assad and the Alawaites are Shia. The majority of the country (70% I believe) is Sunni. Again, this is a reflection of the conflict as Sunni groups worked against Shia groups in the 2005-2010 range. The rebels are the majority Sunni fighting against the Shia minority that's in control of the government. There's been talk that Assad has tried to Sunni-fy Alawaites into more a moderate group, but