Congressman and Iraq War Vet Blasts Trump’s 'Praise' of Saddam Hussein

Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) -- an Iraq War vet -- blasted Donald Trump’s “praise” of Saddam Hussein at a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina Tuesday.

"Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, right? ... But you know what he did well? He killed terrorists. He did that so good," Trump said. "They didn't read 'em the rights, they didn't talk. They were a terrorist, it was over."

In a statement, Moulton said he takes Trump’s “latest piece of bile personally.”

"Whether you agreed or disagreed with the Iraq War, here's a sentence you would never hear from someone who served there: 'Saddam Hussein was a bad guy, but…' There is no but,” Moulton said. “He [Saddam] was one of the worst dictators of the 20th century, a highly exclusive club whose membership required a commitment to evil and an exceedingly high body count.”

Moulton also slammed Trump for his praise of world leaders Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un before saying that his “admiration” for Saddam “crossed a previously inviolate line.”

“...Praising the leadership of an enemy combatant directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American service members,” Moulton said. “Some of these service members, as well as the thousands who gave their lives in the years after Saddam Hussein met his own deserved end, were my friends. All of them were ten times the men and women that Trump could ever hope to be."

Iraq was on the U.S. State Sponsors of Terrorism list from 1979 to 1982 and was reinstated when Saddam invaded Kuwait until 2004. Saddam ran the country from 1979 until his capture in 2003.

Human Rights Watch estimated in 2004 that in the last twenty-five years of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party rule, his own government murdered or “disappeared” a quarter of a million Iraqis alone. This figure of course does not account for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed fighting Iran or during the occupation of Kuwait, both which occurred under Saddam’s rule.

Human Rights Watch said around 100,000 Kurds were slaughtered by his government during the 1988 Anfal genocide in Northern Iraq.

Mass graves are still being uncovered – in 2011, one was found with more than 800 bodies in it thought to have been from executions during Saddam’s regime. In 2003, a mass grave contained 3,000 bodies.

Hussein was executed by hanging after a criminal trial on Dec. 30, 2006.

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