I'll agree with that. My thought early on that Saddam would be one case where financing and arming the opposition would clearly be OK.

By manipulation I mean putting in a govt. that is so obviously puppet in nature (like the Shah) and keeping them there with enough arms to dwarf the opposition. That kind of stuff can create some long lasting ill will.

As I see it, no one liked the idea of empowering anyone other than Saddam, HW Bush and advisors certainly, so in their minds it was either him or us.

That would have been the trick: helping the opposition dispatch the MF and then getting out of the way enough so that the gubmint had the support of the people. But I'm not sure any kind of democracy is going to work in greater Iraq -- maybe if they do divide into thirds, but holy jihad, batman, these peoples crazy.

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