Iraq - a history lesson
or a reminder.
Michael Dobbs wrote in the Washington Post in 2002:
"US officials saw Baghdad as a bulwark against militant Shiite extremism and the fall of pro-American states such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and even Jordan - a Middle East version of the 'domino theory' in Southeast Asia. That was enough to turn (Saddam) Hussein into a strategic partner and for US diplomats in Baghdad to routinely refer to Iraqi forces as 'the good guys' in contrast to the Iranians, who were depicted as 'the bad guys'... The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague."
Of course no-one listens. Michael Dobbs was one of the very few in the mainstream media to remind people of the thoughts and actions of US policymakers.
But further...
"US support for Iraq continued even after US Secretary of State George Schultz received an intelligence briefing from State Department analyst Jonathan T Howe stating that Iraqi troops were resorting to 'almost daily use' of chemical weapons against the Iranians. The Reagan administration was so pleased with Iraq's role in driving back the Iranian hordes that it dispatched Donald H Rumsfeld to Iraq in 1983... where he shook Saddam's hand, pledged that the United States would regard 'any major reversal of Iraq's fortunes as a strategic defeat for the west' and that Washington was ready for a full resumption of diplomatic relations."
When Saddam actually started gassing people, his government was considered 'legitimate', while the media of the time "expressed no surprise that Iraq would use gas, given the ferocity of their Iranian enemy."
"In 1988 reports emerged that Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons against his own citizens - Iraqi Kurds in the town of Halabja. Several US senators... introduced the Prevention of Genocide Act which sought to impose sanctions against Iraq for its continuing use of chemical weapons and for other human rights violations. The act passed in the Senate unanimously, but the Reagan White House launched a campaign to turn it back and succeeded in killing the bill... "Secretary of State Colin Powell was then the national security advisor who orchestrated Ronald Reagan's decision to give Hussein a pass for gassing the Kurds.... In the fall of 1989, only nine months before Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, then-president Bush overrode the objections of officials in three different government agencies and signed a top-secret directive ordering closer ties with Baghdad and opening the way for USD1 billion in new aid."
Taken from 'Weapons of Mass Deception', Sheldon Rampton & John Stauber.
And the US and UN have the audacity to try Hussein on the killing of those Kurds when, not only did they know about it, but allowed it to happen and even approved it. I'm not saying Hussein shouldn't be tried, but there was no action at the time and meanwhile the US government is responsible for the 'genocide' of thousands of citizens in the Middle East. The whole thing is a farce and is it any wonder that Saddam's defence lawyers are being assassinated so these facts are not brought out into the open?
