Azael
December 18, 2002, 12:29am
41
Just who do you think was in charge in Iran back then?
Saen
December 18, 2002, 5:24am
42
Oh stop it! If you are comparing the Iran-Iraq war to the genocidal conflict like in Kosovo you need more to back up your statement than rhetoric and insinuation. Please :rolleyes:
Saen,
http://www.terrorismanswers.com/sponsors/iraq.html
in the 1980s, following the Iranian revolution and the subsequent hostage crisis, the United States saw Saddam as a useful regional counterweight to the Ayatollah Khomeini. Indeed, when Iraq launched a long, brutal war against Iran in 1980, the Reagan administration provided Saddam’s regime with arms, funds, and support.
Iraqi troops repeatedly used poison gas, including mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin, against Iranian soldiers.
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=40&ItemID=2292
In early 1979, the Shah of Iran, the U.S.'s loyal Persian Gulf gendarme, was overthrown. The U.S. Embassy in Teheran was seized by militant students in November, and a month later, on Christmas eve, the Soviet Union invaded neighboring Afghanistan.
These developments shocked the U.S. establishment. They threatened to undermine its grip on the oil-rich Gulf, and possibly hand their Soviet rivals a major geopolitical gain. The U.S. counter-attacked, and one front (and there were many) seems to have been encouraging Iraq to invade Iran. The goals: weakening Iran and limiting its ability to undermine U.S. clients in the Gulf, while creating opportunities for increased American leverage in both countries and building up the U.S.'s direct military presence in the region.
Not surprisingly, Carter administration officials deny they gave Iraq a “green light” for its September 22, 1980 invasion. Yet there is evidence that they did just that. On April 14, 1980, five months before Iraq’s invasion, Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Advisor, signaled the U.S.'s willingness to work with Iraq: “We see no fundamental incompatibility of interests between the United States and Iraq…we do not feel that American- Iraqi relations need to be frozen in antagonisms.” In June, Iranian students revealed a secret memo from Brzezinski to then-Secretary of State Cyrus Vance recommending the “destabilization” of Iran’s Islamic Republic via its neighbors.
http://www.foreignwire.com/terror.html
First the Iranians: The overriding factor governing Tehran’s foreign policy since the revolution of 1979 has been the fear of an American counter-move to destroy the Islamic regime. In Iran, where political memories are perhaps longer than they are in the West, it is recalled that the CIA masterminded the 1953 counter-coup that ousted the national government of Mohammad Mossadeq and returned the Shah to power.
More recently, the CIA lent support to the ramshackle collection of former generals and other supporters of the Shah who attempted to launch a counter-revolution from bases in Iraq in the first year of the revolution; more recently still, the U.S. Navy entered the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, effectively on the side of Iraq, and destroyed Iranian oil installations during the course of an operation ostensibly designed to secure the safe transit of Kuwaiti tankers through the Persian Gulf.
Also check these:
http://pbsvideodb.pbs.org/all_chapters.asp?item_id=4162 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0818-02.htm
And here’s my personal take:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&postid=2695297#post2695297
Perhaps now you can provide some cites showing America didn’t support Iraq in that war to prevent the spread of Islamic radicals or maintain their control of oil resources. I’ve looked myself and the best argument I’ve see is that we chose “the lesser of two evils.” You can call it that if you like. I call us pragmatists who place our prosperity over the basic human rights of anyone else.
tracer
December 18, 2002, 6:25pm
44
Actually, no, it’s not.
Of all the arab nations, Iraq is probably the most secular and (for want of a better word) progressive. Islamic religious sentiment is not nearly as strong in Iraq as it is in Iran or Saudi Arabia, either at the popular level or at the government level.
Sure, Iraq has a despot at the helm right now who is not above using Islamic jingoism to achieve his ends – but in which other muslim country would you see, for example, women attending a University?
istara
December 18, 2002, 8:55pm
45
The UAE?
But I take your point. Iraq is very secular. Whether it will remain that way if Saddam is toppled and the majority Shiaa take over remains to be seen.