Saddam's Weapons - Source Of Saddam's Weapons

Discussion

"But Saddam is an evil dictator who terrorized his people and even used chemical and biological weapons."

You're absolutely right. And do you know who equipped his military for free? We did. Do you know who gave Saddam weapons, including chemical and biological? We did.

Remember the Iranian hostage crisis in the late 1970s when Islamic fundamentalists overthrew the Shah of Iran and seized our embassy in Tehran? We lost our strongest ally in the Middle East and needed someone to keep the rise of Iranian Islamic fundamentalism in check.

Enter Saddam Hussein of Iraq, which borders Iran. Donald Rumsfeld, then with the Reagan Administration, flew to Baghdad to court him (have you seen the photo of Mr. Rumsfeld smiling and shaking Saddam's hand?) and gave him heaps of conventional, biological and chemical weapons, which Saddam used to kill thousands of Iranians in their 8-year war. What did we call Saddam when he used chemical and biological weapons to kill Iranians back then? We praised him as our staunchest ally in the region.

Why are we calling Saddam a villain now? When the 8-year war ended and Iran calmed down under the more moderate Mohammed Khatami, Saddam needed to be put back in his place. But he had grown too big and no longer wanted to submit, and thus was brought down by force.

Does that make us the bad guys? From a historical perspective, not really. The Prussian historian von Clauswitz once said, "In international politics, the strong do what they will, and the weak must submit." This "might is right" logic was the overt rule of international relations throughout history until the Second World War, and was the covert rule thereafter.

Compared to the great powers of the past, America actually has been fairly benevolent. We rebuilt Western Europe and Japan after World War II, intervened in Korea, etc. But underlying every major intervention was our own national self-interest. We didn't sacrifice 50,000 of our young men in Korea out of altruistic concern for the Korean people. We fought that war to stop the expansion of Communism, which was then fast emerging as our greatest enemy.

That's not to say that America isn't a great country. It is. But let's not kid ourselves about our motivations and let's please stop with the hypocrisy regarding Saddam's use of biological and chemical weapons.

Back