I was under the understanding that US support for Iraq was not in the equipment department, but rather in chemical and biological weapons.
For instance:
Quote:
Alcolac International, a Maryland company, transported thiodiglycol, a mustard gas precursor, to Iraq. A Tennessee manufacturer contributed large amounts of a chemical used to make sarin, a nerve gas implicated in Gulf War diseases.
Phyllis Bennis, author of "Before and After," notes that "the highest quality seed-stock for anthrax germs (along with those of botulism, E. coli, and a host of other deadly diseases) were shipped to Iraq by U.S. companies, legally, under an official U.S. Department of Commerce license throughout the 1980s." A Senate Banking subcommittee report in 1994 confirmed that shipments of biological germ stock continued well into 1989.
According to Judith Miller in "Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War," Iraq purchased its seed stock - its "starter germs" - from "The American Type Culture Collection," a supply company in a Washington, D.C., suburb.
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(from
http://www.somalilandtimes.net/2003/60/6020.htm)
and from the Washington Post (downloaded from
http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2002/123002.htm):
Quote:
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A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses against the "human wave" attacks by suicidal Iranian troops. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague.
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and (from
http://www.sfbg.com/News/32/21/Features/iraq.html):
Quote:
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According to House and Senate Banking Committee investigations, in the five years preceding the Gulf War, the U.S. Department of Commerce licensed more than $1.5 billion of strategically sensitive American exports to Iraq. Many were directly delivered to nuclear and chemical weapon plants as well as to Iraqi missile sites. More than 700 licenses were issued to U.S. corporations doing business in Iraq; many of these licenses were for the shipment of this dual-use technology to Iraq.
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I agree that the "The US armed Iraq" argument is a bit silly because lots of other countries were also complicit -- but the US should still acknowledge that it played a role as well as other countries. It is ironic that the alleged WMD programs that justify our occupation of Iraq were founded on technology sold by US corporations with US government approval.