Just ask Saddam how it feels to be attacking an American ally
Which has lots of oil, oh you might want to ask him how being buddies with the US turned out, or are we going to wash away the Iran/Iraq war?
Th U.S. provided intelligence and logistical support, which played a role in arming Iraq during the
Iran–Iraq War. Under the
Ronald Reagan and
George H. W. Bushadministrations, the U.S. authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous
dual-use technology (items with both military and civilian applications), including chemicals which can be used in manufacturing of pesticides or chemical weapons and live viruses and bacteria, such as
anthrax and
bubonic plague used in medicine and the manufacture of vaccines or weaponized for use in biological weapons.
A report of the U.S. Senate's Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs concluded that the U.S. under the successive presidential administrations sold materials including anthrax, and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992. The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: "The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think it's a devastating record."
[124] According to several former officials, the State and Commerce departments promoted trade in such items as a way to boost U.S. exports and acquire political leverage over Saddam.
[125]
The U.S. provided critical battle planning assistance at a time when U.S. intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program. The U.S. carried out this covert program at a time when Secretary of State
George P. Shultz,
United States Secretary of Defense Frank C. Carlucci and National Security Adviser General
Colin L. Powell were publicly condemning Iraq for its use of poison gas, especially after Iraq attacked
Kurdish villagers in
Halabja in March 1988. U.S. officials publicly condemned Iraq's employment of
mustard gas,
sarin,
VX and other poisonous agents, but sixty
Defense Intelligence Agency officers were secretly providing detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for airstrikes and bomb-damage assessments for Iraq. It has long been known that the U.S. provided intelligence assistance, such as satellite photography, to Saddam's regime. Carlucci said: "My understanding is that what was provided" to Iraq "was general order of battle information, not operational intelligence." "I certainly have no knowledge of U.S. participation in preparing battle and strike packages," he said, "and doubt strongly that that occurred." "I did agree that Iraq should not lose the war, but I certainly had no foreknowledge of their use of chemical weapons." Secretary of State Powell, through a spokesman, said the officers' description of the program was "dead wrong," but declined to discuss it. His deputy, Richard L. Armitage, a senior defense official at the time, used an expletive relayed through a spokesman to indicate his denial that the United States acquiesced in the use of chemical weapons.
[126]
Concern about the 1979
Islamic Revolution in
Iranand about the
Soviet invasion of Afghanistanprompted Iraq to reexamine seriously the nature of its relationship with the United States. This process led to a gradual warming of relations between the two countries. In 1981 Iraq and the United States engaged in low level, official talks on matters of mutual interest such as trade and regional security. In March 1982 the USA decided to remove Iraq from its list of countries supporting terrorism in order to be able to help Saddam Hussein to win the Iraq-Iran war.
[127] Following, the United States extended credits to Iraq for the purchase of American agricultural commodities,
[127] the first time this had been done since 1967. More significant, in 1983 the Baathist government hosted a United States special Middle East envoy, the highest-ranking American official to visit
Baghdad in more than sixteen years. In a U.S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the U.S. list of
State Sponsors of Terrorism. Ostensibly, this was because of improvement in the regime's record, although former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, "No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in terrorism ... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran."
[128] In 1984, when the United States inaugurated "
Operation Staunch" to halt shipment of arms to Iran by third countries, no similar embargo was attempted against Iraq because Iraq had expressed its desire to negotiate an end to the war. All of these initiatives prepared the ground for Iraq and the United States to reestablish diplomatic relations in November 1984. Iraq was the last of the Arab countries to resume diplomatic relations with the U.S.
[129]
In early 1988, Iraq's relations with the United States were generally cordial.
