A storm in a tea cup - some of the posts here are.... And the wisdom of some of those who have passed caustic comments does leave a lot to be desired.
But who is ultimately responsible for this tragedy - Saddam or the Western Powers whom he turned against...???
Could Saddam have reached the heights that Nasser had - probably YES! But only if he had the same counsel of wise men. To copy a dialouge from the Lawrence of Arabia "So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people - greedy, barbarous, and cruel" and that is what happened with Saddam. Had we had a T E Lawrence in our time He would have said and turned Saddam - Not For Gold; Not For The World - But For Saddam's own Pleasure!
This is not a battle of the so called "Christian Good" vs "Arab Evil" but one of human greed and pettiness and need for dominance. If only we had supported Saddam's nation building and encouraged him to - for his pleasure only - scale the heights of Pan Arab nationalism he would have now appeared far less barbarous than Saudi King Abdullah. The world - The US / UK / India / China / The Arab states should shoulder the blame of events transpired
