>iirc, the last time a crowd of kurds tried to "topple saddam", bush
>pere sat back and watched while they got their asses kicked. but
>maybe i misremember .
The conclusion of a piece by Tim Wiener in the NYT, September 11 (!), 1996
>In January 1991, as the Persian Gulf War began, the CIA began aiming
>propaganda at the Kurds in Iraq. The Kurds listened to Bush's call to
>"force Saddam Hussein the dictator to step aside." And they were
>slaughtered by the thousands when Saddam struck back.
>
>It had happened before. In May 1972, President Nixon and Secretary of
>State Henry Kissinger met in Tehran with the Shah of Iran. The Shah
>asked Nixon to arm the Kurds in their struggle against Iraq, his irksome
>neighbor.
>
>On Nixon's orders, the CIA shipped $16 million in weapons and supplies
>through Iran to the Kurds. But Washington did not share the Kurds'
>dream of independence. The Kurds were only "a uniquely useful tool for
>weakening Iraq's potential for international adventurism," a 1974 CIA
>memorandum said.
>
>In March 1975, as the operation continued under President Ford, the
>Shah cut a secret deal with Saddam, then Iraq's vice president and most
>powerful military man. They would settle a border dispute amicably if Iran
>would cut off the arms shipments to the Kurdish rebels.
>
>Within hours, Iraqi forces attacked the Kurds, who sent an urgent appeal
>to the CIA. "Intervene according to your promises," it read. No answer
>came and thousands died.
>
>Kissinger was questioned about the operation by a congressional panel in
>1976. "Covert action," he observed, "should not be confused with
>missionary work." Few in the shattered Iraqi resistance can fail to grasp
>the difference now.