Iraqi General: US Helped Us as We Used Chemical Weapons[Rumsfeld, Reagan]

[LittleApple81]

by Aaron Glantz
BAGHDAD (IPS) - The Iraq issue today may never have arisen if it were not for the support former U.S. president Ronald Reagan gave Saddam Hussein.

snip...

Reagan's two terms as President correspond roughly to the Iran-Iraq war, the longest conventional war of the 20th century.

Saddam Hussein invaded Iran on Sept. 22, 1980 with the stated goal of gaining control of the Shatt al-Arab, the river that has formed a border between Iran and Iraq, and which would give Iraq better access to the Persian Gulf.

The U.S. government was then interested in containing Iran, which had just become one of Washington's major enemies after the Islamic Revolution lead by Ayatollah Khomeini. U.S. hostages had been taken, and Ronald Reagan had just been elected partly on the strength of criticizing President Jimmy Carter's inability to free them.

"America and Saddam thought the same way at that time, because America wanted to destroy the revolution in Iran," retired Iraqi Brigadier-General Zekki Daoud Jabber told IPS in an interview in his Baghdad home.

When Reagan was President, Gen. Jabber was in charge of communication and radar for the Iraqi military. Almost from the beginning of the conflict, U.S.-manned AWACS aircraft leased to Saudi Arabia were used to relay intelligence to the Iraqi military.

"It was very important to us," Gen. Jabber told IPS, "because it allowed us to know where Iran's planes were; where they would strike."

snip...

Reagan took the first step in November 1983 when he removed Iraq from the U.S. government's official list of "nations that support international terrorism." That opened the door to full diplomatic and economic cooperation between Iraq and the United States.

The next month he sent an emissary to Baghdad bearing a personal letter for Saddam. That emissary was none other than current Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

More at link. Bad for Rumsfeld!!!! Reagan!! and BushCo (since he is the inheritor of the "conservative" saint Reagan!)!!
http://www.antiwar.com/ips/glantz.php?articleid=2804

[daleo]

1. A little trip down memory lane, remembering St. Ronnie and Saddam

"Rumsfeld also met Saddam's foreign minister Tariq Aziz. According to a State Department memo made available by the National Security Archives in Washington, Rumsfeld told Aziz: "The United States and Iraq share many common interests," and that the Reagan administration had a "willingness to do more" to "help Iraq."

In 1984 Tariq Aziz, now under arrest after being on the list of Iraqis most wanted by the U.S. administration, traveled to Washington and met Ronald Reagan at the White House. Following that meeting, the United States made its intelligence in the Gulf available to Iraq on a regular basis, and set up direct links between the CIA and the U.S. embassy in Baghdad."

[0007]

2. Why am I not shocked at this report this morning?

"the Reagan administration never seriously tried to stop Iraq using chemical weapons. "Everything we did was checked with America," he said. "They knew our policy was to use chemical weapons on the Iranian army when they entered our territory. We told them that and they continued to help us."

As the war dragged on, Saddam's tactics became increasingly more brutal. He launched al-Anfal in northern Iraq, a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing against his own Kurdish population, which – tired of Saddam's oppressive rule – was siding with Iran. That campaign left tens of thousands of Kurds dead. Hundreds of thousands were led out of their villages at gunpoint, and their homes bulldozed behind them.

The Reagan administration barely took note of the Anfal campaign. While U.S. forces did nothing to protect Iraqi Kurds, they began to fight directly with Iran. On October 8, 1987 U.S. warships destroyed two Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf. Then, on April 18, 1988 U.S. warships blew up two Iranian oil rigs, sank a frigate and destroyed an Iranian missile boat."

[daleo]

3. Didn't the U.S. also shoot down an Iranian civilian airliner?

U.S.S. Vincenz (spelling) shot it down, they say it was an accident (the boat's captain won a medal too, if I recall correctly). But, there was an incredible paranoia in the 80's about Iran, not that dissimilar to what we see today about Al-Quada. Although, at least there was no doubt in those days there really was a country called Iran, whereas Al-Queda still has a rather shadowy reality.

[StaggerLee]

5. Some of those ops boys were traumatized by this accident

They needed and got some counseling afterwards. If I am not mistaken the Captains wife was the target of a pipe bomb in San Diego a few years later. I may be wrong about this but I remember seeing something on the news about it in the early 90's.

[Aidoneus]

11. There were many "terrorist" attacks against Iran in the period

the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air 655 (a bigger massacre than Lockerbie, if memory serves), Iranian oil platforms were attacked by pro-Saddam US forces in the region, coast guard boats were sunk, etc.. all were acts of aggression and criminal acts that went unpunished.

OH.. post#2 said much the same things.. should've read up above first.

[StaggerLee]

4. funny thing about those oil platforms

My ship was at Pearl Harbor at the time (we had just gotten back from our 55+ days in the Persian Gulf- escorting Kuwaiti oil tankers- we went up there right after the USS Stark was hit by an Iraqi Excocet missile) I hear that it took around 200 shells to bury those platforms because the 5 inch guns on the Spruance classes were malfunctioning.

[0007]

7. Thanks for the story Stagger, sounds like have first hand experience, 'eh?

Rudyard Kipling is one of my favorites.

[bpilgrim]

10. i remember our chaplain freaking out over that one on the 1MC, after taps

the lights came on in the berthing area for the first and last time during my short 1 hitch... I remember him saying the "U.S. is at WAR..." blah-blah-blah...

I don't even remember what else he said like WHO we are at war with and WHY since a such a huge CHEER erupted in the birthing area followed by the reverberations of U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A and all i could make out were but bits and pieces of 'god and country' like fragments but i remember being in SHOCK-and-AWE at the reaction and wondering if these numbnutts knew what WAR really ment?

i didn't, but i read enough books to be completely frightened by the idea... especially a MODERN one :scared:

later someone from watch came on the 1MC - but appropriately the lights didn't, keeping us in the DARK - and told us it was a false alarm, pheeeeew.

never happened again... heard it was just a miss intertertation of some radio trafic :crazy:

anyways, i see this as a PERFECT opprotunity to weave in the little known history of how we got to this point.

karl loves playing with fire... it is time to give him a lesson in blow back of what REALLY happened up to this point.

so many folks want to KNOW wtf is GOIN ON?

:hi:

peace

[are_we_united_yet]

6. Get the feeling

Rove is starting to suffer a tiny bit of burnout in his job?

[Barkley]

8. Conventional weapons caused most of the 1million war deaths

Under Reagan, the US armed both sides (Iran with spare parts for hostages) of the war; North Korea was more consistent arming only Iran.

Saddam Hussein invaded Iran on Sept. 22, 1980 before the election of Reagan in November 1980. Carter put arms sanctions on Iran, which was like tying one of its hands behind its back. It virtually invited Iraq to invade Iran.

Iran was a large recipient of US weapons in the Gulf; the 8 year war helped drain down their weapons supply. Iran and Israel were jointly planning to build a nuclear ballistic missile.

Because of the arms embargo, today Iran produces much of its own military hardware, including medium ranged ballistic missiles.

[xchrom]

9. the crazy thing is the disconnect that the u.s. suffers

from in thinking that the man and woman in the street {in iran and iraq} doesn't know what our involvement is.
we build the hate that is ultimately used against us and then cry and whimper -- but we are innocent.