[Sidewinder]

Originally posted by Mr. Pockets


He killed thousands of his own people and used chemical weapons on his neighbors - what other proof do you need that he was 'nuts?'

I don't want to step on toes, but I think that people need to understand the history of the United States and Iraq. This is an excerpt from a persuasive essay I wrote for my website back in February. I know it's long, but I think it's important to have the big picture and not focus on the latest news without analyzing historical data (my history prof would be so happy).

George H.W. Bush served as Vice President under Ronald Reagan from 1980 to 1988. In 1982, the Reagan administration removed Iraq from a list of known countries that supported terrorism. This was done in order to help Iraq defeat Iran during that war. In a 1995 sworn affidavit of Howard Teicher, information was released about the United States providing over $1 billion, military intellegence, and insuring successful third-world military sales to Iraq.

In December 1983, an envoy of the Reagan Administration, Donald Rumsfeld, was sent to Baghdad to meet with Hussein and Tariq Aziz. Rumsfeld carried a letter from the United States and Israel. The United States pledged to help Iraq as the United States stood to lose global and economic power if the war was lost. Israel offered assistance to help Iraq as well, but this was declined.

In March 1984, Rumsfeld was sent back to Baghdad for another meeting with Aziz. The same day these two met, the United Nations reported the Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iran. Reagan, Bush Sr. and others condemned these acts, but in November, Aziz was invited to the White House. Reagan met with Aziz to discuss reopening relations between the two nations (ties had been cut in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War). Apparently, the Iraqi use of chemical weapons was not enought to deter the administration.

A US Senate report was published in 1994 detailing the help provided to Iraq. Between 1985 and 1989, American companies, licensed by the Department of Commerce, had exported anthrax, botulinum toxin, histoplasma capsulatam (attacks lungs, spinal cord, brain, and heart), brucella melitensis (damages organs), clostridium perfringens (causes systemic illness), and clostridium tetani (just plain toxic). These weapons were exported in their strong forms and capable of reproduction. A United Nations report on Iraqi biological weapons later detailed these exact substances found in Iraq. The United Nations found these idenitical weapons used against Iran.

President Reagan and Vice President Bush communicated with Hussein through Egyptian officials. It was later shown that Reagan and Bush were giving advice to the Iraqi dictator.
Most of the weapons that Hussein had purchased were from other nations, but 100 helicopters were purchased from the United States. As a matter of fact, some of these helicopters were used to gas Kurds in northern Iraq. Note that the current Bush administration uses this point to show that Saddam is a homicidal dictator--but remember, he's using US helicopters. Iraq also purchased approximately $1 billion worth of components to build a nuclear bomb and bomb delivery technology (i.e. Scud and Al Samoud missiles) from the United States.

When George H.W. Bush took office in 1989, the policy toward Iraq didn't change. The Iran-Iraq war had ended, but the United States was still providing assistance to Iraq. For FY1990, the United States provided $1 billion for agricultural aid. Between 1985 and 1989, over $5 billion was provided to Iraq.
Of course, US policy toward Iraq changed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and the entire international community condemned the invasion. At that point, it would be hard for the US to support it's second greatest middle eastern ally (next to Israel). Remember, the same weapons that were used to attack Iran were the same ones used to invade Kuwait. The same ones that the US helped provide.

To further my point, I would like to provide a transcript of a conversation between Senator Robert Byrd and Donald Rumsfeld, dated September 19, 2002:

SEN. BYRD: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding these hearings. Mr. Secretary, to your knowledge, did the United States help Iraq to acquire the building blocks of biological weapons during the Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown?

SEC. RUMSFELD: Certainly not to my knowledge. I have no knowledge of United States companies or government being involved in assisting Iraq develop, chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

SEN. BYRD: Mr. Secretary, let me read to you from the September 23, 2002 Newsweek story. I read this -- I read excerpts, because our time is limited: ""Some Reagan officials even saw Saddam as another Anwar Sadat, capable of making Iraq into a modern secular state, just as Sadat had tried to lift up Egypt before his assassination in 1981. But Saddam had to be rescued first. The war against Iran was going badly by 1982. Iran's 'human wave attacks' threatened to overrun Saddam's armies. Washington decided to give Iraq a helping hand. After Rumsfeld's visit to Baghdad in 1983, U.S. intelligence began supplying the Iraqi dictator with satellite photos showing Iranian deployments. Official documents suggest that America may also have secretly arranged for tanks and other military hardware to be shipped to Iraq in a swap deal -- American tanks to Egypt, Egyptian tanks to Iraq. Over the protest of some Pentagon skeptics, the Reagan administration began allowing the Iraqis to buy a wide variety of " -- quote -- "dual use" -- close quote -- "equipment and materials from American suppliers. According to confidential Commerce Department export-control documents obtained by NEWSWEEK, the shopping list included a computerized database for Saddam's Interior Ministry, presumably to help keep track of political opponents; helicopters to transport Iraqi officials; television cameras for video surveillance applications; chemical-analysis equipment for the Iraq Atomic Energy Commission, IAEC, and, most unsettling, numerous shipments of bacteria/fungi/protozoa to the IAEC. According to former officials, the bacteria cultures could be used to make biological weapons, including anthrax. The State Department also approved the shipment of 1.5 million atropine injectors, for use against the effects of chemical weapons, but the Pentagon blocked the sale. Helicopters, some American officials later surmised, were used to spray poison gas on the Kurds. The United States almost certainly knew from its own satellite imagery that Saddam was using chemical weapons against Iranian troops. When Saddam bombed Kurdish rebels and civilians with a lethal cocktail of mustard gas, sarin, tabun and VX in 1988, the Reagan administration first blamed Iran, before acknowledging, under pressure from congressional Democrats, that the culprits were Saddam's own forces. There was only token official protest at the time. Saddam's men were unfazed. An Iraqi audiotape, later captured by the Kurds, records Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Ali Chemical, talking to his fellow officers about gassing the Kurds. 'Who is going to say anything?,' closed quotes, he asks. Quote, 'The international community? F-blank them,'" exclamation point, closed quote.
Now, can this possibly be true? We already knew that Saddam was a dangerous man at the time. I realize that you were not in public office at the time, but you were dispatched to Iraq by President Reagan to talk about the need to improve relations between Iraq and the U.S. Let me ask you again: To your knowledge, did the United States help Iraq to acquire the building blocks of biological weapon during the Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown? The Washington Post reported this morning that the United States is stepping away from efforts to strengthen the Biological Weapons Convention. I'll have a question on that later. Let me ask you again: Did the United States help Iraq to acquire the building blocks of biological weapon during the Iran-Iraq War? Are we in fact now facing the possibility of reaping what we have sown?

SEC. RUMSFELD: I have not read the article. I, as you suggest, I was for a period in late '83 and early '84, asked by President Reagan to serve as Middle East envoy after the Marines -- 241 Marines were killed in Beirut. And as part of my responsibilities, I did visit Baghdad. I did meet with Mr. Tariq Aziz, and I did meet with Saddam Hussein, and spent some time visiting with them about the war they were engaged in with Iran.