[RnMomof7]

++You need a history lesson.++




The Reagan administration sent "special ambassador" Donald Rumsfeld to meet with Saddam to improved relations with Iraq in 1983 and 1984. It dropped Iraq from the list of nations sponsoring terror, renewed diplomatic ties, and provided intelligence and aid to Iraq to prevent its defeat by Iran.

The U.S. tried to build up Saddam Hussein as the new western strongman in the Gulf. In 1988 and 1989 , the U.S. government approved licenses to U.S. firms to sell biological products to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Agency and electronics equipment to Iraqi missile-producing plants. Other Western allies, like Britain and France, also helped to arm Saddam.


But when Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait in 1990 that relationship ended. If you remember at the time Saddam said he believed that he has US permission to do that .

We have a history of doing what we think is in the US best interest and having it explode in our face ( Castro another example)

[KevinDavis]

Well we were once allies with the Soviet Union.. Look what happend.

[SuziQ]

If you remember at the time Saddam said he believed that he has US permission to do that .

Oh, and we can surely believe Sadaam, can't we?

The Reagan administration made political calculations because of the threat that Iran posed to the region.. The fact that we kept Sadaam supplied during his war with Iran kept them BOTH off the backs of others in the region for at least 10 years. It was only when he decided that he needed to be 'Supreme Caliph' of Iraq and Kuwait that he was taken down a peg or two. He then ignored the terms from the end of Gulf War I, and was starting to be more friendly to the Islamic terrorists that had plagued the Middle East for the last 30 years.

[BureaucratusMaximus]

We have a history of doing what we think is in the US best interest and having it explode in our face

Post-WWII Japan, and the European continent would disagree with you. This all has to do with the concept of preemption...and actually...preemption has nothing to do with our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan because of events on 9/11/2001. REMEMBER THAT? (of course, if you have gotten drunk on the leftist Kool-Aid about, how, all of a sudden, Iraq has NEVER had any ties with terrorism or Al-Queda since Republicans got into office....you'll discount that) but, at any rate, preemption would have saved lives (in retrospect) in 1939 Germany and Japan, 1947 USSR, Korea, Vietnam, and China. (MacArthur was right BTW.) and its saving American lives now. At any rate...doing nothing is never a solution. If terrorism is going to exist in this world...I'd rather it happen in the desert of Iraq where the terrorist are fighting soldiers with superior discipline and superior firepower...instead of, say seeing my son blown to pieces from a car bomb in a local mall parking lot.

[roses of sharon]

Frans van Anraat, a Dutch businessman who is on trial right now in the Netherlands for genocide charges, he sold Saddam 538 tons of TDG, ie, mustard gas, that he used on his own.

The US gov took part in his arrest. The US gov investigated many US companies for violating laws concerning WMD capabilities, all thru the late 80s and 90s.

He lived in Iraq for 14 years under the name of Faris Mansoor Rashid al-Bazas, and fled to Syria after the invasion. Ck out how many worldwide co were shut down and exposed, just for context, which you do not get at DU.

And btw, cold war alliances were important, you should study the dangers of communism.

Read up about it, and while your at it, read up about the Islamic cults that were roaming the globe for decades, murdering innocents with impunity, while the evil George Bush was but a teenager!

[Valin]

That was then...this is now.

[daybreakcoming]

If you remember at the time Saddam said he believed that he has US permission to do that .

As said by either Saddam or Baghdad Bob. If this is an example of your beliefs, you should not feel at home here.

[ValenB4]

Well said. Good points.