How nice.
Needless to say FOXnews isn’t saying dick about this, probably 'cause they haven’t finished the rimjob they’ve been giving Ronnie for the last 6 years.
But that’s ok, I’m sure CNN or MSNBC, those infamous liberal news channels will have something, hell anything about this story.
SURPRISE!!!
Liberal media bias my ass.
Sheesh.
Of course, Rush will find someway to blame Clinton/Carter/liberals/Democrats for what REAGAN did.
Have you seen the cartoon where Bush 41 is criticizing Bush 43’s Iraq plans and says “Where did you ever come up with such a foolish scheme?” And 43 replies, “YOU, okay! I learned this from watching you!” like in that old “don’t do drugs” ad.
I don’t hate America, I’ve got no reason to think WSLer hates America, but it’s shit like this that gives other people a reason to hate us. Jesus Christ, even for the Reagan administration that was amazingly short-sighted and unprincipled. Oh, and illegal.
All these stories say is that the CDC fucked up by sending samples to Iraq, because Iraq had requested them for medical research purposes. That may have been horribly naive on the part of CDC, but it’s hardly tantamount to US support for Iraq bioweapons. Remember, this is the same federal government that processed visa applications for the September 11 hijackers several months after the attacks. Fuckups are the norm for government bureaucracy.
And Baldwin, it wasn’t illegal. According to the OP’s article: “The exports were legal at the time and approved under a program administered by the Commerce Department.”
Like I said in the GD thread here, I don’t think it was anything close to a fuckup. The US sold Iraq Apache helicopters in 1984, after it had already been proven Saddam had gassed Iranians. Those same Apache helicopters were used in the gassing of Kurds in 1988. The US knew Saddam Hussein was a vicious, bloodthirsty bastard, they just didn’t care because keeping him propped up was vital to protecting US interests in the Middle East.
Trying to deny the US’ past actions as irrelevant to the present analysis is fucking short-sighted, but then that seems to be par for the course for those here who can’t stomach the remotest criticism of Reagan, Bush’s war drive, or the US. Buncha morons.
And as I pointed out in that thread, we are here talking about a transfer of biological agents from the CDC, not Apache helicopters. The former was evidently given to assist in presumably-legitimate Iraqi medical research, and (evidently naively) its possible use militarily was not considered. The latter was given for precisely military uses. Kindly keep your eye on the ball.
Jesus christ. Is it necessary to go * ** straight ** * to the personally abusive condemnations? Isn’t it possible, even likely, that he was simply mistaken?
To be specific, the State Department backed Saddam as a counterfoil against Iran, which they viewed as the greater threat. Remember that in the 80s, Iran was the sponsor of Hezbollah and the US considered Iran, as well as Syria, to be the chief sponsor of Mideast terror, particularly in re: Shi’ite involvement in Lebanon’s civil war.
Mind, I’m not excusing our actions, just pointing out what was happening at the time for those too young to remember.
Well, you’re right about that - but remember that the uprising in Iran occurred because the US backed Reza Shah Pahlavi, who was a nastily oppressive little man in his own right. Any government that replaced the overthrown Shah (and I certainly don’t believe Khomeini’s rise was inevitable, based on what I know of events at that time) would probably have been quite hostile to the US over this, thus leading the US to favor Iraq since Hussein was still an amenable ally.
Your basic response is “Reagan was an asshole, so he must’ve known about the CDC shipments! And he just didn’t care!” Of course, you have no factual basis for that assertion; indeed, as noted above, the UN inspector himself doesn’t think the US delivered seed stock to Iraq with an intent for them to be used for bioweapons.
Apache helicopters != biological agents. The provision of the former for military purposes != the provision of the latter for military purposes. **
Hmmm, should I second Stoid’s sentiment, or should I fight immaturity with immaturity? Hmmmm indeed.
Ah hell, I’ll go with immaturity: fucknugget.
Careful, Olent: on this topic you are rapidly approaching the level of irrationality you displayed in the long-lost “Could We Get Rid of Money” thread.
Well, this is the Pit, of course. What would a mild correction be without an invective?
As you may not know, since you’re not obviously carefully reading my posts over in GD, I’ve indicated a number of times situations in which Reagan definitely knew what was going on and continued to allow support to be given to Iraq. I’m not basing my accusation that he didn’t care whether or not Iraq got biological agents on my (well-founded, IMHO) disgust with the man, but on evidence that clearly shows his attitude toward Iraq, both before and after the shipments of anthrax and botulinium occurred. I’m quite convinced I shouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt on this issue.
Satan must be checking the prices for hockey skates on pricewatch right about now.
Jeese- Ronnie and George sent weapons to Iran (so those lovable Contras could have some under the table $$), and Biowarfare agents to Iraq? Talk about playing both sides . . . .