Why did Reagan/Bush arm Saddam??

peace for all

becuse of the nature of the american policies not regarding the public but govt policies , they also armed osama, they arm some other countries and then after some time there are bans on that country , it is not strange for the american policies makers , although strange for every body , including the American people

A Guy

What really annoys me is people's lack of perception of history and especially the passage of time. Yes, in the 70's and 80's the United States gave aid to Saddam Hussein and the Afghanistanian Mujahedeen (of which bin Laden was a member). But just because we helped them out at one moment doesn't mean that our relationship with them can't change with the passage of time. In the global environment, the relationship between nations is fickle; they sweeten and sour all the time, and it's not just when the United States is involved.

For example, only 250 years ago the closest ally of the United States was France, and our biggest enemy was Britain. Within 100 years of that, during our Civil War, France was our enemy and Britain, our ally. Britain has stayed our ally since, but during WWI and WWII, France was also our ally, as was the USSR and China. During the cold war our biggest enemy was the USSR, despite them having been an ally only a few years prior. Nowadays, France isn't much of a friend, Britain is our greatest ally, still, our relationship with Russia has sweetened a bit from the Cold War and our biggest major national threat is China. That's just how things work. Relationships are volatile by nature.

So, just as we were friends with the Russians during the 40's and mortal enemies of the Russians only a decade later, so, too, did we help the Iraqis and Mujahedeen at one time, and later are enemies with them. But why did we help these countries and groups at these times? It's because they were fighting about the Russian global machine (Iran in Iraq and Russia in Afghanistan) and if we share an enemy, we are in fact friends!

niuchemist

Maybe because Iran had been taken over by fundmentalist Islamic government. The same government that shouted "Death to America" and took our embassy officers hostage.

Maybe we were afraid that Saddam would lose the war that he so ignorantly started and that breed of Islam would spread.

PARTY ANIMAL

WHEN DID THE USA SELL T72 TANKS AND MIG FIGHTER JETS YOU GOOFBALL?

utter_trance

so dat dey cud attack iraq now.....beat da crap out of em...n steal deir oil!!

3rd parties for REAL CHANGE

Because Reagan/Bush were trying to stop radical Islam before it spread into the cancer that is haunting our world today. The problem was, that Saddam was an inept military commander. Had Saddam defeated Iran if would have never attempted to invade Kuwait.

Reagan was trying to be proactive in national defense, something that the left in this country is incapable of understanding.

the GOP need continued education
helmet.org help save our troops

Tommy G.

At the time he was an allie against Iran who is and always has been hostile to the US.Osama was also aided by the US to help defend Afghanistan against an unprovoked invasion by the Soviets.
The lesson here is a Mid-East allie is always waiting to sink a knife into your back.They can not be trusted and have been that way forever.

Snowy

Ok lose the internet conspiracy sites and look at Iraqs actual order of battle

Russian Tanks
Russian rifles and machine guns
Chinese pistols
Russian missiles (long range)
French missiles (anti aircraft and anti ship)
French anti aircraft radar
Russian anti aircraft roland and sam
Russian and French personnel carriers
French and Russian Helicopters
Russian and a few French fighter aircraft

Oh yes and British second world war trousers.......

They also had a handful of chieftan and centurian tanks which they had captured off the Iranians and the Kuwaitis.

So...where are these American arms which you talk about, because I have never seen them?

Question - Should "utter trance" learn how to read and write in English or learn something about the oil industry....or maybe both?

tonalc1

To fight against Iran.

U.S.-Iraqi relations extend back to June 1982 when President Reagan issued a National Security Decision Directive in the midst of the Iraq-Iran war.

According to an affidavit by former National Security Council official Howard Teicher, from 1982 on the White House "supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing U.S. military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required."

urbancoyote

This whole pro-Iraqi and anti-Iranian "stance" started back in the 1970's when Bush was DIRECTOR OF THE C.I.A.

Being pro-Iraqi (Arab and Sunni and related to the Saudi family) was great for Bush Senior, who already was financially a puppet of the Saudi.

The CIA helped ESTABLISH Saddam in power (under Carter!).

Bush Sr weaseled his way into the Vice Presidency and his focussed interest in foreign policy and intelligence was the source of the "pro Iraqi stance" during the Iran/Iraq war.

Eventually Saddam turned and bit his puppetmasters (USA) by invading Kuwait.

It was pro-Arab and pro-Saudi politics in exchange for low oil prices and as a quid pro quo for financing the Bush family.

sOuL dOcToR

So they could attack him afterwards calling him a terrorist, what else the same reason they hired Osama Bin Laden. It was all a long thought of plan to annexe Iraq and Afghanistan.

NONAME

geez...during the Iran/Iraq war...but don't you all remember Iran holding Americans hostage..That tore it..you screw with us theres gonna be pay back. So we tipped the scales a bit..
I swear most of you brilliant people must sit around stoned thinking up this bs.

MIKE B

to fight Iran

inpoetry1

To counterbalance Iran.

Coach D.

At the time, Iraq went to war against Iran and fought their war for 11 years. At that time, our foreign policy felt that Iran was a greater danger to that part of the world - so we helped Iraq in their war.

because we wanted him to win instead of Iran because he thought Iran was a bigger threat to the world bc the were developing nukes. However Regan did not want to be official in the war except for the navy gaurdin oil tanker shiping

dolphin_friendly06

Purely, simply, it was all in the spirit of expediency. In order to antagonize Iran in a puppet war with the Soviet Union, the US determined Saddam to be an 'enemy of the enemy', and therefore a 'friend.'

michinoku2001

I have to agree with Snowy-Iraqi weapons obviously did not come from the US.

LORD Z

Back then it was Iran that was attacking US citizens.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: