[Rev. M. Rodimer]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

This is wrong. Saddam lead the Iraqi Ba'atist Patry, which is a pan-Arab socialist movement. At the time of the US invasion, Iraq was subject to US sanctions, and clearly no market for US goods.

Go back in time a little farther.

We armed and trained Saddam's military. You see, Iraq was a US ally before the decision to invade Kuwait.

Said decision was green-lighted by US diplomats, who then turned 180 degrees and attacked Iraq upon discovering that Kuwait didn't like being invaded.

I can also add that invasion is not a terribly cost-effective way to create markets for the two or three consumer goods still actually made in the US.

[MitzaLizalor]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

food-for-oil programme anyone? (and AustralianWheatBoard yee-haw!)

[Widows Son]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

We armed and trained Saddam's military.

What, with Scud missiles?

[Samuel Coleridge]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

What, with Scud missiles?

The U.S. supported Hussein against Iran. It would be ever so helpful if one of you inbred types would read a book every once in a while.

I bet you were a small child when we invaded Iraq, I am I right?

Yours with perspective,

Sam

[Widows Son]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

The U.S. supported Hussein against Iran.

Do you mean the US was happy to sell weapons to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war? War is always about money. I am only asking you to be a little more cynical than you already are.

I bet you were a small child when we invaded Iraq, I am I right?

Not really. May I have your check before Christmas as I rather fancy getting myself one of those BlackBerry things?

[Lisa H]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Do you mean the US was happy to sell weapons to Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war? War is always about money. I am only asking you to be a little more cynical than you already are.

Pity you did not read the article. Saddam. You might have learnt something.

[Widows Son]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Pity you did not read the article. Saddam. You might have learnt something.

Such as what?

[Lisa H]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Such as what?

Do I have to be your teacher also.

[Rev. M. Rodimer]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Such as what?

The first paragraph:

A leading member of the revolutionary Ba'ath Party, which espoused secular pan-Arabism, economic modernization, and Arab socialism, Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power.

From the section on the Iran-Iraq War:

Later (probably to appeal for support from the United States and most Western nations), he would make toppling the Islamic government one of his intentions as well. Iraq invaded Iran, first attacking Mehrabad Airport of Tehran and then entering the oil-rich Iranian land of Khuzestan, which also has a sizable Arab minority, on 22 September 1980 and declared it a new province of Iraq. With the support of the Arab states, the United States, and Europe, and heavily financed by the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein had become "the defender of the Arab world" against a revolutionary Iran. The only exception was The Soviet Union, who initially refused to supply Iraq on the basis of Neutrality in the conflict, although in his memoirs, Mikhail Gorbachev claimed that Leonid Brezhnev refused to aid Saddam over infuriation of Saddam's treatment of Iraqi Communists. Consequently, many viewed Iraq as "an agent of the civilized world".[38] The blatant disregard of international law and violations of international borders were ignored. Instead Iraq received economic and military support from its allies, who conveniently overlooked Saddam's use of chemical warfare against the Kurds and the Iranians and Iraq's efforts to develop nuclear weapons.[38]

and

Saddam reached out to other Arab governments for cash and political support during the war, particularly after Iraq's oil industry severely suffered at the hands of the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf. Iraq successfully gained some military and financial aid, as well as diplomatic and moral support, from the Soviet Union, China, France, and the United States, which together feared the prospects of the expansion of revolutionary Iran's influence in the region.

...

Borrowing money from the U.S. was making Iraq dependent on outside loans, embarrassing a leader who had sought to define Arab nationalism. Saddam also borrowed a tremendous amount of money from other Arab states during the 1980s to fight Iran, mainly to prevent the expansion of Shiite radicalism. However, this had proven to completely backfire both on Iraq and on the part of the Arab states, for Khomeini was praised as a hero for managing to defend Iran and maintain the war with little foreign support against the heavily backed Iraq, and only managed to boost Islamic radicalism in the Arab states. Faced with rebuilding Iraq's infrastructure, Saddam desperately sought out cash once again, this time for postwar reconstruction.

Finally, from the Gulf War section:

The U.S. had provided assistance to Saddam Hussein in the war with Iran, but with Iraq's seizure of the oil-rich emirate of Kuwait in August 1990 the United States led a United Nations coalition that drove Iraq's troops from Kuwait in February 1991. The ability for Saddam Hussein to pursue such military aggression was from a "military machine paid for in large part by the tens of billions of dollars Kuwait and the Gulf states had poured into Iraq and the weapons and technology provided by the Soviet Union, Germany, and France."[38]

and, the reason the US initially green-lighted the invasion, here glossed over:

U.S. President George H. W. Bush responded cautiously for the first several days. On one hand, Kuwait, prior to this point, had been a virulent enemy of Israel and was the Persian Gulf monarchy that had had the most friendly relations with the Soviets.[50] On the other hand, Washington foreign policymakers, along with Middle East experts, military critics, and firms heavily invested in the region, were extremely concerned with stability in this region.[51] The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's price of oil, and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake. Britain profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits. Bush was perhaps swayed while meeting with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who happened to be in the U.S. at the time.[52]

[Widows Son]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

the reason the US initially green-lighted the invasion, here glossed over: "firms heavily invested in the region, were extremely concerned with stability in this region.[51] The invasion immediately triggered fears that the world's price of oil, and therefore control of the world economy, was at stake. Britain profited heavily from billions of dollars of Kuwaiti investments and bank deposits."

So, you agree, that war is always about money?

[__MK__]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

At first I found this forum to be laughable. Then I find out that it is just a divine revelation of crazy baptist beliefs. Now I think this forum is awsome and hillarious. It is not a cult, it is comedy.

will it every be possible for me to start my own threads, or is that privilege restricted to the founders of the forum?

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Humor is not part of the Baptist's nor God's Plan save where the victim is wailing in agony. There is nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, humorous about the Road to Salvation.

Your privileges to post will be granted when God is satisfied that you are not an atheist or a catholic or another of His Many Enemies.

PS try using "Verdana" font, it looks like you're using a typewriter.

[__MK__]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Is this better?


Why did you alter my post?


I wrote divine revelation not "divine revalation".


Still funny though.

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

Is this better?


Why did you alter my post?


I wrote divine revelation not "divine revalation".


Still funny though.

Probably someone corrected your spelling.

[__MK__]

Re: Is Landover Baptist Church a CULT?

You guys actually have a patch that changes certain words to spiritual stuff.


That is wild.


Lampoon

Satire

Spoof

Takeoff

Imitation

Mockery

We will see what happens.