*This article was originally published in The Topeka Capital-Journal, July 23, 2016.
In a massive, ever-expanding field of absurdities, Donald Trump’s recent comments about Saddam Hussein and terror may have been the worst: “Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? He was a bad guy — really bad guy. But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good. They didn’t read them their rights. They didn’t talk. They were terrorists. It was over.”
It was amazing to hear the presidential nominee of a major American party spout falsehoods with such pugnacious self-confidence. If Trump had even a passing interest in the past few decades of Iraqi history, he would have known how ludicrous it was to insist that Saddam Hussein was some kind of ruthless terrorist hunter.
He would have known that the U.S. State Department designated Iraq a state sponsor of terrorism for providing material support to Hamas, the Palestine Liberation Front, the Abu Nidal Organization and many other radical groups. For example, after the first Intifada, Hussein frequently sent $25,000 “martyr” rewards to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers — regardless of whether they hit military or civilian targets. He also subsidized regional terror organizations that were fighting against Turkey, Iran and his other rivals (such as an Iranian group called Mujahadeen e-Khalq and the Kurdish PKK).
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