Donald Trump: Middle East Would Be Better Off With Saddam, Gaddafi

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, when asked if he believes the Middle East would be better today if Moammar Gadhafi of Libya and Saddam Hussein of Iraq were still in power, responded, "It's not even a contest."

"You can make the case, if you look at Libya, look at what we did there — it's a mess — if you look at Saddam Hussein with Iraq, look what we did there — it's a mess — it's [Syria] going to be same thing," the real estate mogul said.

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Maybe Saddam and Gadhafi were a necessary evil, maybe.

You guys agree with Trump on this one.

The middle is east is a lot worse now than it was with them.

America just cries like a baby when they can't exchange their fiat money for oil and are asked in demand for gold.

Some of those countries are such cultural and educational cesspools, that I'm not surprised at all by how things turned out.

I say let them be, if they want to act like savages and think they're better than everybody else while doing it, let them.

those despotic regimes would have fallen without intervention.

@servomaster: wow, you're a prick. Cultural inferiority complex for sure

Basically this is what a lot of people have been saying for a long time. We couldn't hope to stabilize the region - as much as America would like to play god.

And some are surprised? Say what you want about Saddam, but he showed religious nut jobs their place.

I was part of the invasion force in 2003. One thing that I noticed was that most of the Iraqis were happy to see us at first, but when the insurgents started popping up it became a pain in the ass.

Saddam was scum and he treated his people like shit. However, he did keep shit under control. I guess that you could make the same claim about Kim Jong Un, though, so you have to ask what the cost of that control is.

I can't speak on how Gaddafi treated his people, though.

There is no such thing as "necessary evil". Evil is evil and should not be supported.

What matters though is to not become evil in fighting with evil. That is to say to not cause more evil because you want to overthrow evil.

Basically from a religious point of view, your aim should be a unified one and that is to rise up for God. Every other aim will be an evil aim because only an uprising for God is capable of achieving its goals in a manner that is satisfactory to God and the believers, in a manner that is not evil. Because in an uprising for God, God himself is your guardian and the guardian of the uprising while in other uprisings evils become your custodians and you'd be begging them to fix things and they may or may not be able to fix things but God, His power is unlike any power and he has promised the believers victory in this world.

As an American, I agree. I long for the years that we were under British colonial rule where it was stable and we were happier and better off. Now we have a massive war and some guy named George masquerading as a general, and "freedoms" which would basically allow Ben Franklin to stick his dick everywhere. I've lost friends and families and my town is divided in either supporting the crown or the revolution. Really though, it'll just become another dictatorship or another monarchy.

you should have stopped here :P

hes right. Sometimes its necessary to be evil to protect the greater good but generally if it can be helped we should not become evil while fighting evil. I think Bush had us cross that line many many times when he was president for no good reason.

The middle east would indeed have been better off with Saddam and the likes. He may have been oppressive, but at least they kept their countries under control.

The War on Terror was the biggest US foreign policy blunder since Vietnam. And not only the middle east suffered, but the USA did as well. However, I feel the biggest problem with the invasions were the execution, rather than the concept. Annexing would probably have been a wiser choice than what they were doing instead.

Feels like this whole big stick foreign policy is going to end up biting America in the ass sooner rather than later. At times it makes me feel ashamed of living here.

Agreed and ISIS is one of the byproduct of the overthrow of saddam!

He's right and it's not even arguable.

The entire region is in chaos and iran is completely unchecked. Things are so bad you can't even find a gold trimmed land rover with louis vittion leather interior and drakkar noir scented air vents.

Right. We should let tyrants do what they want just so we can breathe easier half a world away. Sounds like a great foreign policy to have. No wait, sounds like a chickenshit foreign policy to have.

What's a little mass murder of innocents if it lets you sleep better at night? Sure, Saddam and Qaddafi kept their people in line. By killing a lot of them. Is that what you really want?

Go even further back to the CIA overthrowing the democratically elected leader of Iran and installing a US and British puppet and then Kissinger's foray into helping commit genocide against the Bangledeshi people by Pakistan. The USA has a long history of blunders in the Middle East.

@jimkabrhel: that's not what I want. But instead, before the Republicanisms delusional war on terror, when Al Gore was running for office. We had 1/2 a billion in currency. Now we have 17 trillion in debt.

We went into iraq, and lost 5000 soldiers, and we didn't accomplish democracy. Instead we have Abadi purely supported by Shiites (mainly from Iran) and the cities or Ramadi and Mosul lost.

Now if i may ask?? Was it worth it?? If you say yes, how so??

I seriously hope that's sarcasm.

It isn't just a "We shouldn't have gone in there because of what we have now" discussion. We cannot predict what would have happened in the intervening years if Saddam had stayed in power instead of being overthrown. Despots always sew the seeds of their own destruction so I think it's very likely that Saddam would have been overthrown at some point. Plus, there are other ways to destabilize regimes, other than a full frontal assault.

I never approved of the invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq, and I don't support an invasion of Syria now.

There is no better or worse situation between the two. It's different shades of awful. My opinion is that there is always other ways of seeing a situation and trying to change it.

Bliss is ignorance. Saddam and Qaddafi also kept the western media in the dark about things that are going on inside their respective country, we don't hear about it, we don't care.

I actually agree with him about Saddam, he may have been a Tyrant but he kept that whole region in check. With him gone everything there destabilized and led to the mess we have today.

We traded a couple of guys that kept order by murdering a couple thousand innocents a year for complete chaos that kills tens of thousands of innocents per year. See, that's why you don't go poking your democracy into places where it does not belong.

He's right. Still a moron though. They need secular dictators in the region, we're bent on removing them for some reason.

He is not wrong.

I can't say he is right though lol.

Though Saddam did gas and kill thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of his own people based simply on tribal/religious divisions.

Posted what I was going to say. Though I will say the west, not USA.

I know the topic is Gadhafi and Hussein,but You sound like your talking about the States as well.

School shooting is almost a weekly occurrence and American have to actually question your own gun laws and most of the U.S. people see nothing wrong with it.Talk about savages and supposedly being better then everybody else"so yes,you sure as hell sound like your talking about Americans".

I'm sorry to be offensive,but most Americans do think there better then most.The U.S. is not the center of the world"News Flash".By the way,your education is too a cesspool of shit,metal detectors in your schools,armed school staff, just to name a few.You are just looking on one side of things and think U.S.A. in the only good country on the planet.

@bmanva:

I'm totally serious. Things were better under the crown. The king knew all and kept the world stable. Some local rube said that the u.s. will become a super power.

Preposterous!

You know I'm right.

Thank you. I may not have agreed with Bush's decision to go into Iraq, but this doesn't mean I support Saddam or any despot who oppresses their own people. Perhaps Saddam did keep things stable but sooner or later, the center cannot hold and it was true with Bashir Al-Assad's Syria.

Also, no. No more dictatorships and the Arab world doesn't need it. Tunisia is an example of a country that rejected religious sharia and tyranny in exchange for democracy. Yes it's one but hopefully soon will follow. Change is a process and not as simple as everyone makes it out to be.

Also Donald Trump is an idiot.

He may not be wrong. People assume democracy is the best form of government, but honestly, it doesn't always work well. Granted, any form of government would likely do pretty shitty in some regions.

Seems like God wouldn't want you killing any of his creations. Shouldn't god be the one that metes out punishment and not random people? God is all powerful, but man is not. In most wars, both sides believe "god is on their side", but most likely god is on neither. The evil is in men who believe that war and killing is justifiable.

@Motokid6: A lack of education is also correct,your right as well.

Nah, they're culturally superior to most countries. I don't know where you're from but it's very likely to be a country of cultural inferiority.

Are you saying there isn't mass murder of innocents going on in Saddam and Qaddafi's absence? There was at least social order that allowed the Iraqis to live in relative peace.

Why don't we tell him he can run both countries if he just leaves America and never comes back.

So just because there is mass murder now means that we should have left Saddam and Qaddafi in place? Logical fallacy much?

I'm not, if you think countries like Iraq or Libya have good cultures than you need to do a lot of reading.

Yeh things are alot better now hey?

Thanks for unleashing yet a new threat onto the world, seems like America is just going around the middle east spawning new terrorist threats.

I know it's easy to blame all of us 'Muricans since we all look a like and sound alike, but you'd be surprised how few Americans actually supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Barely a majority at the height of the furor after 9/11 and we've been growing tired of it every since. Unfortunately, our politicians don't often listen to the loudest voices, but instead listen to the fringes who demand retribution and war, and the corporations who demand more fossil fuels.

@servomaster: It is the cradle of civilization. What is your culture? Kim Kardashian?

The concept "cradle of civilization" is the subject of much debate. Greece, Egypt and the area around the Yellow River in china is supposed "cradle of civilization", see how that all turned out.

I rather live in northern Europe thank you very much.

Corporations have the only voice in America bro.

Well, we can have mass murder with relative social/political/economic order, or we can have mass murder along with chaos. Which is your preference?

@xeno_ghost: Only because of Citizens United. If there can be enough grassroots support, and a bit of changeover in Congress, it can be overturned and individual citizens will have more of a voice again. Still doesn't stop me from voting though.

Yes there is. With Saddam there was some semblance of stability in the country. ISIS was created after Saddam was taken down and now ISIS is fighting in Syria, part of that countries civil war. Plus ISIS has has become the greatest recruiter ever for extremist, training individuals that go back to their countries to carry out terrorists attacks or even simply by inspire individuals that self radicalized in their own countries. And not to speak that Iraq served as a check on Iran hegemony in the region.

Now Russia is in Syria and who knows what the hell may happened.

Like someone correctly point out, the Iraq War is the biggest US foreign policy blunder since the Vietnam War.