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But Hussein soon disappointed his
accomplices in the U.S. by nationalizing the Iraqi oil industry. Other
Arab leaders followed suit, greatly alarming U.S. officials [56]
"Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of Arabs"
-- Henry Kissinger
Then, in 1980, Hussein did something that made him much more popular in
Washington.
Saddam Hussein: I decided to invade Iran!
U.S. officials were delighted. After the
1979 Iranian Revolution, American strategists considered Iran the main
threat to U.S. interests in the Middle East. The U.S. and its allies,
therefore, were happy to provide Hussein with advanced weaponry. U.S.
companies even sold Iraq materials to make chemical and biological
weapons, including highly lethal strains of anthrax. [57]
George Bush: Don't do anything I wouldn't do!
Iraq used chemical weapons against both Iranian troops and insurgent
Kurdish villagers inside Iraq. The Reagan Administration knew this, but
the U.S. continued to supply Hussein not only with the necessary
chemicals, but also with satellite photos of the positions of Iranian
troops. Over 100,000 Iranian soldiers were killed or injured by poison
gas. [58]
In 1987, the Reagan administration intervened directly in the Iran-Iraq
War (on Iraq's side), sending a naval armada to the Persian Gulf to
protect the oil tankers of a country that was then Iraq's ally --
Kuwait. Using state-of-the-art weaponry,. the U.S. Navy blew up an
Iranian oil platform, destroyed several small speedboats, and recklessly
shot down an Iranian passenger airliner, killing all 290 passengers.
We had to defend our ship!
Sure, what were they going to do, flush their toilets on you?
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