Trump: Saddam killed terrorists ‘so good’
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump spoke at a rally in Raleigh, N.C. on Tuesday.
RALEIGH, North Carolina >> Donald Trump, who frequently criticizes U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is praising Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s ruthlessness.
“Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? … But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good,” Trump told supporters at a campaign rally Tuesday night in Raleigh, North Carolina. “They didn’t read ‘em the rights, they didn’t talk. They were a terrorist, it was over.”
Trump has previously said the world would be “100 percent better” if dictators like Saddam and Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi were still in power.
Saddam in fact has no record of killing terrorists and was not a force against al-Qaida. Then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in 2003 that Saddam was offering financial rewards of up to $25,000 to families of suicide bombers. Although the U.S. supported Saddam against Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was listed by the U.S. as a state sponsor of terrorism. Saddam suppressed dissent in his country and used poison gas against 5,000 Iraqi Kurdish men, women and children.
Jake Sullivan, a Clinton senior policy adviser, said Trump’s “praise for brutal strongmen seemingly knows no bounds.”
Sullivan said such comments “demonstrate how dangerous he would be as commander-in-chief and how unworthy he is of the office he seeks.”
Trump’s foreign policy pronouncements have proved controversial, even within the Republican Party that is poised to nominate him for president in a few weeks. He has said the United States is too fully engaged around the world and has questioned the role of NATO and said the United States has been taken advantage of by nations benefiting from its security cooperation and troop presence. Some critics within the GOP have said his policies suggest an isolationist stance in an increasingly dangerous world.
Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, partners among Republican congressional critics of Obama administration foreign policy, carried out a fact-check on Trump’s national security statements earlier this year at a Capitol Hill hearing.
On April 19, when the Army general selected to lead U.S. forces in South Korea testified before the committee, McCain seized the opportunity to undermine Trump’s suggestion that the U.S. withdraw its forces from the South because Seoul isn’t paying enough to cover the cost of the American military presence.
“Isn’t it the fact that it costs us less to have troops stationed in Korea than in the United States, given the contribution the Republic of Korea makes?” McCain asked Gen. Vincent Brooks.
Yes, Brooks said, telling McCain the South Koreans pay half, or $808 million annually, of the U.S. presence there.
Two days later, Trump’s claim that NATO is irrelevant and ill-suited to fight terrorism came under the microscope. As president, Trump has said he would force member nations to increase their contributions, even if that risked breaking up the 28-country alliance.
In early March, more than 70 conservative national experts, including former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, wrote in an open letter that they have disagreed with one another on a variety of issues but are united in their opposition to a Trump presidency. Chertoff served in President George W. Bush’s administration.
82 responses to “Trump: Saddam killed terrorists ‘so good’”
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Mr. Trump has no respect for the rule of law, but really respects dictators.
It would hard to imagine anyone less fit to be President.
According to the Drudge report which researches media converge, Trump gets 5 times more adverse coverage than Hillary—see all the articles in the SA today about the email scandal???? Me neither!!
On the whole, this year’s election is all about voting for the lesser of two evils; Hillary has a serious trust issue and Donald always spouts his opinions without first engaging his brain. This could be the start of something bad for America.
Clinton is probably the only Democrat that Trump could beat, while Trump is the possibly the only Republican that Clinton could beat.
interesting comment from Palanai below. Trump is inarticulate but he is right that Bush totally miscalculated and led us into a needless war. Saddam should have been an ally of ours against terrorism. Saddam was a cruel man but was an ally of President Reagan in the 1980’s. He hated the radical Jihadists and did drive them out. Iraq is, sadly, much worse off without Saddam who kept the Shiites and Sunnis under control. Poor old murderous Bush.: still our worst president ever.
Being for Donald Trump is forcing Republican posters here to take absurd positions.
A heck of a lot better then the HiLIARy backers position which is just bend over.
Are you kidding me!Matt Drudge is a right wing hack and his so called drudge report little more than a partisan mouthpiece.
Trump is great. He says the right things. If Saddam did not kill terrorists then why was there no suicide bombers and no civil war in his country? His type of dictatorship is exactly what the Arabs need.
Trump probably wishes Hitler was still in power too. Seems like Trump’s cult will eat up everything the Donald says no matter how crazy it sounds.
Allaha, you are right. Who cares if he used chemical weapons to kill 5,000 of his own people and invaded a neighboring country. We should let all countries develop nuclear weapons like Trump wants. And Allaha, too bad Canada and Mexico doesn’t have leaders like Saddam. You are a moron.
…Says the Prime Minister of Trollistan.
So allah is saying the previous GOP dummie (bush) destroyed Iraq which cause the multitudes of terrorist whIle the real 9/11 terrorist enjoyed goat cheese and wine for the next 11 years?
klastri – It is quite obvious then that you have a limited imagination and analysis. The facts are apparent. All of the countries that the U.S. have assisted in overthrowing are now crawling with terrorists. The idea of getting rid of dictators seems like a noble endeavor but is sheer foolishness as it creates a power vacuum in which terrorists thrive as they have no reason to fear a strong-man dictator anymore. The result is a Middle-East that is rife with terrorists who not only create chaos in the countries in which they reside but now have a larger voice and power base to export such terrorism to other countries. I can only imagine that you overlook the fact that of all people, terrorists have no respect of the rule of law.
So you’re suggesting that the President of the United States should follow in the footsteps of terrorists or dictators? Great idea!
I’m glad you agree with d-bullfighter. It’s about time you came to your senses. The POTUS has got to get tough. He can’t allow more terrorists to infiltrate the USA.
Whatever he’s doing it isn’t working.
Of course not – just that we should not be in the business of overthrowing regimes in the Middle East lest we leave a power vacuum for terrorist to gladly fill in. But I guess that would be too hard for you to understand, isn’t it klastri?
d_bullfighter – Mr. Trump was praising the governance of a murderer and a dictator.
If you want to change the subject, go right ahead.
Better to praise a dictator who keeps terrorists at bay wouldn’t you say klastri? But I guess you prefer terrorists instead. Nice argument!
I would suggest that how you get rid of dictators is just as important. If you invade a country, destroy its institutions, damage its ability to sustain itself, don’t look around and be surprised when you have bad stuff happen. Standing against dictators, especially those who gas their own people is in the best traditions of our country.
Hilliary.
I can’t stand him but there is an ounce of truth in what he says. When he was killed his army became ISIS. He was a monster who kept monsters in line.
Saddam created terrorists by paying the families of suicide bombers who killed Israelis, and his army became ISIS as a result of the disastrous Bush policy of “de-Baathification.” That mistake was compounded when Maliki, with U.S. complicity, double-crossed Sunni army officers who participated in the Sunni Awakening.
Trump killed terrorists with kindness. In a two year period during the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Saddam gave Palestinian families more than $10 million, all according to a well-known scale. Families of suicide bombers got $25,000 each and families of those killed in confrontations with Israel got $10,000. Those who houses are destroyed by the Israeli military got $5,000 and those wounded by Israelis got $1,000.
Should have left Saddam in power, the whole MidEast in turmoil more than ever today. Guess who started this, no other than Bush himself
Was it Bush or the Military industrial complex and defense contractors? War is big business and Bush wasn’t very smart, and possibly easy manipulated especially by Cheney who had everything to gain.
Bush 2 took Saddam out because he had weapons of mass destruction and ties to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. Now Trump is saying he was actually a terrorist killer? Can any Republican here care to clarify this obvious contradiction?
Bush took out Saddam because Saddam tried to have Bush #2’s father assassinated. There was no reason to go into Iraq. Bush screwed that up, big time. L
There are two Bush/Cheney lies in your first sentence. Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction, and the 9/11 report concluded that “we have seen no evidence that these or the earlier contacts [between Saddam and al Qaeda] ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship. Nor have we seen evidence indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States” Both the 9/11 report and the five-volume report published by Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), a think tank for national security agencies, discredited the allegation that Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.
There were no WMDs in Iraq. Trump is the only one with balls to come and say that, too.
There were no weapons of mass destruction!
Gee SA, Hillary get away with “murder” today and you nit pick Trump again.
Standing in awe of something like…
“Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? … But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good… They didn’t read ‘em the rights .. They were a terrorist, it was over”
…is nitpicking?
Not a fan of Clinton’s but your choice of the words “get away with murder” appears describe an actual goal o this man’s.
She hasn’t gotten away yet. Not until we elect her. Vote Johnson!
HEY DONALD DO AMERICA A FAVOR AND MOVE TO IRAQ AND RUN FOR PRESIDENT THERE … YOU SxxK !!!!!
You have no clue what you’re talking about. And I bet you think an airplane actually crashed into the Pentagon, and that WTC 7 came down on its own? Trump is the ONLY candidate to question GWB and 9/11…because really, history didn’t happen the way you were told it did, and if Trump doesn’t get elected, we will NEVER know the truth.
If Trump doesn’t get elected, we WILL know the truth! Because Trump will then have time to prove that Barrack Obama was born in Africa. And Trump will have time to be a lobbyist for the NRA, making sure that everyone who goes to a gay bar is packed with a semi-automatic rifle. “What a beautiful sight that would be!”
Obama is a Muslim sheep in Christian clothing, “Gd” Rev. J. Wright only enforced Obama’s views of America. Both of them should have been born and grown up under Sharia!
You write something like this, and then expect anyone to read anything else you write? WOW!
These repugs are delusuonal.
You are wasting your talents. You should be on The Clinton team.
I support Hillary but I have to agree with you regarding the truth of the Iraq War. Too many people let the horrible Bush family off free. Our entire life has changed and we are deeply in debt due to a needless, losing war.Oddly Bush ignored warnings weeks before 9-11 but was never blamed for it.
That is accurate that in intelligence briefings given to Bush-2 and his cabinet level staff prior to 9-11-2001, all high level US govenment officials were warned not to fly on commericial flights.
As Trump continues to expand the list of dictators he admires, how long will it be before he praises Mussolini for making the trains run on time? And what admirable (to him) qualities will he find to praise in Pol Pot? And then, believing it would boost his appeal to blacks, perhaps he’ll praise Idi Amin.
Your logic is misplaced and rife with red herring associations. I’ll let you figure that out for yourself – if you can.
You forget about the time he was going to rent his estate in upstate New York to Muammar Gaddafi. Remember that time Gaddafi wanted to put up his huge tent? Yep the Chump loves him some dictators!
So does Hilliary. She loves anybody that gives her money. She’ll hold her nose and take the money.
In an interview of Trump by Time, Trump could not say whether it was the right decison by President Franklin Roosevelt to lock up all Americans of Japanese ancesty during WW2 unless he was there to access the information they had at the time. Herr Trump sure loves countries with dictators that round up, put in prison or Purge groups of people that look different or have a different religion from the dictator.
Trump is the exemplar of the Dunning–Kruger effect, a cognitive bias in which relatively unskilled persons suffer illusory superiority, mistakenly assessing their ability to be much higher than it really is. Dunning and Kruger attributed this bias to a metacognitive inability of the unskilled to recognize their own ineptitude and evaluate their own ability accurately.
Hey, if Drumpf liked Saddam, he must be gaga over Uday and Qusay. Maybe he and Melania could even adopt some of Saddam’s grandkids.
So is Mr. Trump suggesting we dispense with our laws and our judicial processes–simply identify possible terrorists and then chop their heads off? Someone is borderline insane….
Borderline?
Build the wall and close the borderline. Sounds like a plan. I’ll pass it on to Mr Trump.
In Countries like Iraq it’s a different ball game. You have to keep order. This is nothing new. You kill one leader and the next one is just as bad. Radical Islam clerics are the problem. But then again Obama/Clinton would know nothing of this.
Well if anyone has a firm grasp on world events, it’s you. Definitely you.
Exactly.
DEVELOPING: The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.
The Liberal Democratic media likes to spin things in anyway they can to make Trump look bad. I see nothin wrong in Trump saying Saddam did good in keeping radical terrorists in line. Did Trump say he condoned Saddams rule of the regular Joe6packs in his country? The Spin is ON! as always. Guess the Liberal Media likes the extended WAR games in the MidEast today
You think it takes any kind of spin to make Mr. Trump look bad?
Right …
Since the Clintons have a long history of controversies, there are any number of past scandals that continue to float around, especially in conservative media: Whitewater. Troopergate. Paula Jones. Monica Lewinsky. Travelgate. Vince Foster’s suicide. Juanita Broaddrick. But the January 2016 resurfacing of Juanita Broaddrick’s rape allegations offers a test case to see whether the conventional wisdom is truly wise—or just conventional.
DEVELOPING: The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.
Spot on Donald!He’s Right again! And if we don’t “Wise-up to this stupid Political Correctness baloney,we’ll keep making mistakes on how to deal with and identify known terrorist. Yeah, we tried all the niceties, compassion and understandings and guess what ? It’s not working folks. Let’s try something more tangible this time! lol.
Indeed, Saddam did not tolerate Terrorist! Which btw,doesn’t mention it in this story. What get’s me is, at one point in time Saddam Hussein was a friend of the US,took care of the terrorist (he did) and kept Iran in check! But when he started those atrocities using poison gas to kill Men,Women and Children? That one lost me!
So What really brought Saddam down? Was his EGO? Because he was too proud? And let’s not forget his disrespect to the No Fly zone. If only he would have complied? Because if he did, think about it. He kept stalling. To those who were paying attention . He had PLENTY of time to hide all those WMD! Yep! “If” only he complied?
We wouldn’t be here today having this…….discussion.
OMG… The Cranky Old Men have today been smoking some crazy stuff. I think Allie got it for them in Waikiki.
Well, in previous threads you’ve revealed that you’re old, and your multiple references today alluding to old men certainly might be construed as being somewhat cranky, so, don’t bogart that joint, my friend…
Ha, you caught me but I’m not my grandfather. I’m not mad at the world. Perhaps it’s the result of working with young people for a long time and doing young things. Mea culpa, I have been cranky on occasion. I like to think that I’m enough self-aware to know when I’m responding emotionally. But hey, thanks for your comment. I’ll try to rein in my sarcasm a bit but I’m making no promises. (BTW: I was the only freshman that I knew at Berkeley in F67 who wasn’t stoned. I was a swimmer and just couldn’t smoke anything.)
Gotcha! Only kidding, I’m as guilty as anyone of sometimes jumping on what I see as foolish comments. Being old can act like concrete on our attitudes if we allow it to set, and that’s never a good thing. Age may rob us of physical flexibility, but it doesn’t have to do so mentally as well. Maryland football minimized my self medication for a while, but I made up for it in the military 🙂
TRUMP was draft age during the Vietnam conflict. How did a millionaire kid get past that? And if he didn’t want to get drafted why does he want to be Commander in Chief? Doesn’t make sense. Buy your way straight to the top? Hes not too smart, but had lots of money, smart enough to fool republicans. The GOP is saying how did this happen.
Is this the best candidate the GOP has to offer? First it was the Mexican wall, and now Saddam.
The same case for applauding Saddam could also be made for Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines. A dictator true but Marcos ruled with an iron hand and there was ironically, law and order. I was there during and after his rule, in case some may question my observations.
Some countries need an iron-hand ruler to instill law and order! Marcos was one of them! Somehow he was blind sided by the very people whom he thought were his “friends”!
saddam also killed his own people, those who did not agree with him. trumpy is not mentally stable and totally unfit to be president. those who support him are truly crazy too.
No argument from me on your assessment of Donald’s fans, but I’m just as interested in hearing why those supporting Clinton feel they’re any different.
The Clintons also killed their own people, those who did not agree with them. Check out the Clinton hit list that began in Arkansas.
Keep it simple. No need to call people crazy. Come November, providing you are registered to vote, vote.
I don’t know if you know how it works. Kill or be killed. Just ask the ISIS, radical Islams, or anyone of these terrorists.
They’ll chop your head off if you are a non believer. Different ball game. You can’t even begin to compare. Kurds, sun hi whatever, ethnic cleansing is a fact of life.
Some of you people must be pretty naive. Too much Obama. You’ll no doubt end up voting for Hilliary. When some radical Islamic terrorist blows up your neighborhood you might think differently about a dictator that kills terrorists. All of a sudden you might be like Hilliary by holding her nose and accepting money from some of these dictator or monarchy nations that for one or more reasons oppress their people.
Oh my goodness. You are still awake. Please ask the LPN to bring you a glass of warm milk. It will help.
DEVELOPING: The State Department is reopening an internal investigation of possible mishandling of classified information by Hillary Clinton and top aides.
“Saddam in fact has no record of killing terrorists”, says the writer.
That’s absolutely correct. But what he did do was murder those he claimed were terrorists (Kurds, etc.) — convenient, yeah? He murdered them, in fact, with weapons prohibited by international law: cluster bombs, poison gas.
“We have to hit them harder than they hit us!” “An eye for an eye!” Yessir, Saddam would applaud those Drumpfoid pronouncements.
And Saddam murdered them indiscriminately: whole villages full of men, women and children.
“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families!” Drumpf, channeling Saddam again, 12/2/2015.
He really has to figure out who he wants to emulate. So far he’s covered Putin, Mussolini and now Saddam. I’m waiting for Marcos next, but my bet is he’ll end up with Idi Amin.
Like I said don’t be naive. The terrorists to Saddam was a threat to his government. You killed Saddam and the ISIS took over. What was worse. Some sort of law or no law at all. To us lambs its terrible. To them it’s business as usual. All the dictators had to do what they had to do to keep order or they themselves would be killed.
Assad perfect example. Kill him and then what? Ghadaffi, kill him and then what?
But look at the USA dropping a WMD not once but twice on Japan. I mean wasn’t one enough?
Yeah right, and the North Korean strong man, Kim Jun Un?, also has and is killing terrorist as well. Just like Hitler was killing terrorist through out Europe.
My, my how how Trumpty-Dumpty admires all of these mad-men’s skills.
At least those mad-men didn’t file for bankruptcy.
Remember Hillary was broke when they left the White House? Where did all her money come from? Duh The liberal sheep are alive and well.