Donald M. Payne: “I share the same revulsion that many others have toward Saddam Hussein. We all know that he is brutal and that his…”

“I share the same revulsion that many others have toward Saddam Hussein. We all know that he is brutal and that his regime has terrorized the Iraqi people and the peoples of nearby countries. But there was a time not so long ago when, despite all of this, we chose to allow him to be our friend. There was a time when we supplied him with chemical weapons and other military technology. If our Nation really cared about Iraq's neighbors, we would never have supplied him the military arsenal that we did. And if we really cared about his people, we would have done something to alleviate the suffering of the Kurds, who for years have been brutalized by the Iraqi military. If we cared about the Iraqi people, we would have done something to lift the burdens imposed on them by U.N. sanctions, which to date have claimed in excess of an estimated 500,000 Iraqi children. But the truth is we did not really care about any of that suffering. Madeline Albright even said that the price of 500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it. Now, however, we claim to care. Now, Saddam Hussein has just become another name on a long list of other tyrants who we once aided and abetted but now oppose.”