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Conveniently forgotten history: How we helped Iraq win a war

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The article below which ran on the front page of the December 30 Washington Post is important, being undoubtedly the most prominent piece of mainstream reportage in recent memory on Reagan and Bush administration support for Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in the 1980s. It summarizes much of the salient information. (You would think that reporters might now ask our Secretary of Defense a couple of pointed questions at his next press conference, though I’m not about to hold my breath waiting.)

Readers of my service over the last year will be hard-pressed, however, to find a single detail not already sent out by me, though from articles in far less influential publications. The Columbia Journalism Review had a fine, detailed “Iraqgate” piece on how the American press covered the arming of Iraq and what was missed covering some similar territory in 1993! (Russ W. Baker, “Iraqgate: The Big One That (Almost) Got Away, Who Chased it — and Who Didn’t,” March-April, 1993, which can be found in the Columbia Journalism Review‘s archives at its website)

And, of course, the Washington Post piece itself is written in a distinctly over careful, if not quite exculpatory fashion. Still, however painfully late, however much almost all of this could have been reported not months but years ago, it is still welcome. Tom

U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup
Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post
December 30, 2002

High on the Bush administration’s list of justifications for war against Iraq are President Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons, nuclear and biological programs, and his contacts with international terrorists. What U.S. officials rarely acknowledge is that these offenses date back to a period when Hussein was seen in Washington as a valued ally.

Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an “almost daily” basis in defiance of international conventions.

To read more Dobbs click here

High on the Bush administration’s list of justifications for war against Iraq are President Saddam Hussein’s use of chemical weapons, nuclear and biological programs, and his contacts with international terrorists. What U.S. officials rarely acknowledge is that these offenses date back to a period when Hussein was seen in Washington as a valued ally.

Among the people instrumental in tilting U.S. policy toward Baghdad during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was Donald H. Rumsfeld, now defense secretary, whose December 1983 meeting with Hussein as a special presidential envoy paved the way for normalization of U.S.-Iraqi relations. Declassified documents show that Rumsfeld traveled to Baghdad at a time when Iraq was using chemical weapons on an “almost daily” basis in defiance of international conventions.

To read more Dobbs click here