Build 'Em Up and Knock 'Em Down

The vilification of Saddam Hussein, damned if THAT hasn't become a full-time job, huh? I mean, sure, the guy was a total ass-hole but, come on. I especially love it how we're constantly inflating the death-toll the bastard levied over there; 200,000, 300,000, 500,000. It's like, why don't we just call it a billion and be done with it?...............................Of course, the fact that a large, large chunk of that was him putting down the Shia uprising that WE, the United States, encouraged after the first Gulf War....does, I'm saying, make it a tad more complicated. Well, that, and the fact that we "tilted" (oh hell, let's just admit it here folks, we armed the God-damned son-of-a-bitch!) toward him - you know, during the entire Iranian conflict...............................Not that that was necessarily a mistake, mind you. Or maybe it was. I don't know. I just don't know anymore.