Roland Burris on foreign affairs

He finally made it last week. I was covering it heavily on The Sixth Ward as not only he was a part of the whole Blagojevich scandal, but he just so happen to be a resident of that city council district.

You know, I want to know what Burris would say with regards to foreign affairs. That is one of many subjects of which Burris would discuss on the floor of that prestigious body. I had a glimpse of it not too long after his last contest for Governor of Illinois.

It was in late 2003 and the topic of discussion was the Iraq war. This was on the radio show Beyond the Beltway and I watched the TV version at that time. He made some comments that I thought showed his ignorance of that whole situation in Iraq. Particularly the allegations that were made against Saddam Hussein which is one of the many reasons why we invaded Iraq and toppled Hussein's regime.

Burris referred specifically to Saddams willful gassing of Iraq's Kurdish population. He reasoned that Saddam wen't after the Kurds because they were not his people. He said that clearly on the radio and radio host Bruce DuMont said, "And that makes it OK."

It seemed to me like a justification for what Hussein did at the time. He obviously didn't recognize that it was something of a genocidal event. That statement was certainly very tactless at the time and it seemed to suggest that perhaps people who were largely at odds with a particular regime should be exterminated.

You know I wish I had that program at my fingertips so that you can hear him for yourself. I probably didn't articulate that in the best way. Still it was one of the most perplexing statements that was ever heard by my two ears. Hopefully as a new Senator he might have polished up a little bit on foreign affairs or at least knows when not to open his mouth.

Photo via The Political Realm!