Hi, DE.
I agree, that many deaths are truly pitiful. Our news media primarily support the invasion, and have never bothered to add up the cost to the Iraqis. There were 143 Iraqis killed in bombings today that clearly never would have happened before the invasion.
Again -- Saddam was a bad, evil person. But the jury is still out on whether the world and Iraq (to say nothing of the US) are better off now than they were with the status quo ante. Ignoring that possibility is refusing to deal with current reality.
-- Dave K.
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com
The opinions expressed above are my own,
and do not necessarily reflect those of CNET!
Hussein's Regime Skimmed Billions From Aid Program
BAGHDAD, Iraq ? In its final years in power, Saddam Hussein's government systematically extracted billions of dollars in kickbacks from companies doing business with Iraq, funneling most of the illicit funds through a network of foreign bank accounts in violation of United Nations sanctions.
Millions of Iraqis were struggling to survive on rations of food and medicine. Yet the government's hidden slush funds were being fed by suppliers and oil traders from around the world who sometimes lugged suitcases full of cash to ministry offices, said Iraqi officials who supervised the skimming operation.
The officials' accounts were enhanced by a trove of internal Iraqi government documents and financial records provided to The New York Times by members of the Iraqi Governing Council. Among the papers was secret correspondence from Mr. Hussein's top lieutenants setting up a formal mechanism to siphon cash from Iraq's business deals, an arrangement that went unnoticed by United Nations monitors.
Under a United Nations program begun in 1997, Iraq was permitted to sell its oil only to buy food and other relief goods. The kickback order went out from Mr. Hussein's inner circle three years later, when limits on the amount of oil sales were lifted and Iraq's oil revenues reached $10 billion a year.
The rest of the story is on the link
speakeasy speakeasygang
What I find most amazing, that there are people who are members of Speakeasy who speak out in support of that terrible evil man.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic