And yet again Gertz's writings fall apart. Iraq bought vast quantities of weapons from its sources of choice. During the Iraq Iran war Saddam was supported by the west, including the US. Vital intelligence information was passed from both the UK and US to assist Saddam on the battlefield against Iran. You cannot 100% control grey and black market arms sales. Saddam and his regime spent vast quantities of money and time seeking out these sources on these markets to achieve both equipment and arms. Much of it was through third parties. You cannot stop arms flowing in this manner. There is too much corruption and bribery going on. Ukraine ordered the missiles - sold onto Syria - Syria sells them onto Iraq. There is no sanctions on Syria obtaining weapons, so how do you stop the transfer taking place? The same way as brand new US made helicopters made it into service with the North Korean armed forces during the 1980s - via a third party. You have a bee in your hat about Putin, but you fail to understand that if Russia wanted to supply arms to Iraq then it would have supplied huge quantities of munitions, not just a smattering of anti-tank munitions. You would have found SA-10s, SA-12, SA-15 SA-20s etc. The same went for engine parts for MiGs. The Syrians ordered the parts from certain Balkan countries and after delivery to Syria they ended up in Iraq. That is how Iraq was able, from around 1998, to get its air force back into the air to challenge the NFZs.
Gertz's writing falls apart. Not really but please feel free to delude yourself.