The US presidential candidate Donald Trump feels that the world would have been a better place if Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi were still in power.
Trump was speaking to CNN’s Jake Tapper when he said this recently. Both Saddam and Gaddafi were war criminals, who committed atrocities against their own people and were among the world’s worst human rights abusers, but what came after them is much worse, he added.
“I mean, look at Libya. Look at Iraq. Iraq used to be no terrorists. He (Hussein) would kill the terrorists immediately, which is like now it’s the Harvard of terrorism. If you look at Iraq from years ago, I’m not saying he was a nice guy, he was a horrible guy, but it was a lot better than it is right now. Right now, Iraq is a training ground for terrorists. Right now Libya, nobody even knows Libya, frankly there is no Iraq and there is no Libya. It’s all broken up. They have no control. Nobody knows what’s going on”.
Trump adds by pointing out that human right abuses continue to happen in these countries. They are much worse than before.
Trump says both Iraq and Libya would be less fractured, and promote a more stable Middle East if the two had not been forcefully pushed out of power.
The real estate mogul then goes on to blame US politicians for the condition of the Middle East right now. “It all blew up around Hillary Clinton (former Secretary of State) and President Barack Obama”.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who committed UK’s military support to then-President George W Bush to invade Iraq in 2003, is also under attack. In fact, he too recently acknowledged that the current Middle East bloodshed may stem from the decision to pull down Saddam Hussein.
The western alliance pulled down Saddam Hussein for attacking Kuwait. NATO decided to intervene in Libya as Gaddafi appeared poised to commit a genocidal-like massacre. Both the countries have been in turmoil since then.
