Chris, The issue under discussion was US backing Iraq during the Iran war. I suggested they patted him on the shoulder and said go to it. But the Soviets supplied him with tank divisions and squadrons of planes.
The Soviets made the war possible. The biological stuff came from the CDC which sends stuff all over the world. I haven't heard that Saddam used biologicals, but he may have played around. The chemical factories came "from the west" which meant that a number of companies from various countries were involved, including the US, and perhaps France - who knows. . Maybe Saddam was getting pieces of the jigsaw together for assembly. We know he used the chemicals. All through the 90's everyone was sure that Saddam had those chemicals - that's everyone, including the inspectors. We now have the army officer who definitively states that chemical weapons were in the hands of the army. But there was no thought of using them because they were pressed up against Baghdad and the city's people would be in danger. In London during the Bush visit, someone blurted out some words that indicated that MI5 had agents in touch with the higher officers of Saddam's army - persuading them not to fight. However, we'll probably hear little more about this. MI5 are pretty close-mouthed. Unless the officer gives evidence at the Hutton Inquiry, which could be interesting, for he said they could have put chemicals into action in 30 minutes, not 45. There were several reasons postulated for the invasion. WMD was obviously the sexiest and it got a lot of play. That's politics It was a good thing to get rid of Saddam. Now comes the hard part. If a peaceful nation can be welded together from the disparate fragments, or even perhaps the formation of a confederation of fragments - maybe things will begin to change in the Middle East. Most of Iraq is peaceful now. Learning how to deal with the guerrillas is a big job now for they are killing many Iraqis and Americans. How this is done could well be the blueprint for similar actions in the future. Harry ******************************************** Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: 818 352-4141 -- Fax: 818 353-2242 http://haledward.home.comcast.net ******************************************** -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 4:34 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: [Futurework] Are they going mad? Harry missed the point and talks about a different era. Did Dubya invade Iraq because of the Iran-Iraq war or what? Nope, because of WMD that were alleged to threaten the US. And these were supplied by the US, not by France. For starters, have a look at "Iraqgate"... http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nsa/publications/iraqgate/iraqgate.h tml Also check out http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1992/h920428g.htm http://www.fas.org/spp/starwars/congress/1991/h910425g.htm Chris Harry Pollard wrote: > Chris, > > Here I am again with my incredible patience. You said: > > "Who had installed and armed (incl. with WMD) Saddam in the first > place . . " > > The 2,400 tanks and 400 planes with which Saddam invaded Iran > were Soviet. The so-called "weapons of mass destruction" were > supplied by the US Centers for Disease Control, which routinely > answered requests for biological material from all over the world > - including Iraq. > > After 8 years, Saddam was re-equipped for the final move into an > exhausted Iran. > > By whom? By Russia of course, though no doubt France's 30 latest > model Mirage planes armed with exojets killed a lot of Iranians. > > Interestingly enough, Iran used American F14's and F15's to fight > Saddam's Russian planes - and they did very well. A ship - or > maybe two - got through the Iraqi blockade and delivered parts > for the American planes. I assume they originated somewhere > American but of that I'm uncertain. The Kuwaiti venture was no > doubt carried out with those Russian tanks and planes that Iraq > used to finish off Iran. > > That wasn't too difficult was it? > > Harry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ SpamWall: Mail to this addy is deleted unread unless it contains the keyword "igve". --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.548 / Virus Database: 341 - Release Date: 12/5/2003 _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
