Here read this for yourselves Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines Well people, whatdayathink…Should we honor their request? :eek: I didn’t think so 
Having the U.S. pay damages in this situation would be one hell of a slippery slope. But I honestly don’t know all the considerations here. For one thing, do the items under discussion have any legitimate non-military use?
Also, the article doesn’t give a whole lot of detail. Are they trying to have the U.S. fork over all the money for damages and care provided to the injured Iranians, or just part of it? Because even if you acknowledge that the U.S. bears some responsibility for providing the item that caused the injuries, doesn’t Iraq bear some responsibility for actually using the stuff?
P.S. This doesn’t seem to be a question with a straight factual answer, and is probably much better suited for Great Debates.
True…very True :smack:
.ADMIN, if you would do me the honors…
For one thing, IIRC we did NOT provide Saddam with any chemical munitions, just conventional ones, and these were not even comparable to the Russian and french contributions. I’ve never seen any evidence we did, and I can’t see a reason we would, not even to kill randomly Iranians. Given that we paid little attention to the bombing of the Osirak reactor around that time, I hardly think we’d be sending him chemical agents.
The “proof” I have seen on this subject consists mainly of declarations of guilt (ours) along with pictures showing Cheney talking to Saddam. Which was hardly unusual in the freakish years of the Cold War.
Anyway, assuming the charge was true, I think we should come to this agreement: they dismantle their evil state and create a new democratic system, and we’ll pay them… 1 million dollars! (Dr. Evil look)
Well, OK, how about 10 billion dollars in foreign aid?
I bet the americans are happy to see that their life style (in this case silly lawsuits) is spreading around the world.
You must be from France.
If the silly lawsuits would go forth and leave here , I’d be all for it.
RR
Actually I’m Canadian.
Unfortunatly the silly lawsuit is a disease (Sillius Lawsuiteeus ) it doesn’t go and leave somewhere, it spreads 
I just wonder how long it’ll be before the follow-up, “American Court Orders Iranian Court To Pucker Up and Kiss Its Big White Ass.”
Yeah. (Snicker) French Canadian!
I’m sorry, that was gratuitous…
Off to Great Debates.
DrMatrix - GQ Moderator
You’d best referesh your memory.
I am not aware of any solid evidence of sales of chemical weapons technology, but it is a cold-hard fact that we sold samples of biological agents useful for a BW program.
Look here, and the link toward the bottom of the page has a transcript of the export licenses dating from the mid-1980s, as provided by the Centers for Disease Control and other government agencies.
I’m not saying that the US was alone in selling this type of material, but our hands are not 100% clean, either.
Your memory really is bad.
It wasn’t Cheney…it was Rummy.
We ALL know that America is the only country that is allowed to make unilateral declarations requiring other countries to dismantle and pay monies, because we’re the biggest kid on the block.
Duh.
Man, I can’t wait until Vietnam comes down with Lawsuititus. I think we owe them Microsoft or something.
It’s our secret weapon. Remember when we were all worried that Japan was going to take over? A bunch of American lawyers set up shop in Tokyo, and they’ve not been a threat since.
On the off chance that the U.S. still has any assets in Iran, this sets it up for their legal system to confiscate them to fulfill the court’s judgement. Just as we will likely use their frozen assets to fulfill our courts judgements against their government.
There’s actually a fair bit of evidence about this. Try reading Said Aburish’s “Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge”, especially the chapter “Road to Halabja”. Aburish once organised some weapons procurement programs in Iraq, and he details his dealings with American companies with the knowledge of the US government. Central to these was the supply of chemical plant equipment, ostensibly for highly toxic agricultural chemicals that hadn’t been used for that purpose for years - “dual use technology”, to use Condi’s phrase. It’s a terrific read, and quite damning to various governments, especially the Americans and the French.
Other people have discussed evidence for biological weapon assistance and my info about chemicals is above. Honestly, can you not see a single reason why the US and other Western nations might want Saddam to win the first Gulf War (ie the Iran-Iraq war), or at least fight the Iranians to a standstill? It wouldn’t be to randomly kill Iranians, it’d be a ‘realpolitik’ decision to keep Iran from exporting revolution and destabilising the region.
Darn, you took the words right outta my mouth.
I’m trying to picture a “Motion to Kiss America’s Ass” on legal letterhead …