(Yes I know I'm breaking my self-imposed limit of one off-topic post per day, but
I'm going to be out of town tomorrow.)

Richard Barker wrote:
>
> (1) The U.S. did NOT arm or train Iraq's military.
>
> Does anyone remember Irangate (as it was called in Britain), where Mr Regan,
> desperately tried to pretend that the US didn't sell arms to IRAN (and IRAQ
> at the same time).

Iran, yes.  Iraq, no.

> Actually I'm a bit surprised by the response, when all the Americans I work
> with, tell me it's common knowledge that the US supplied Iraq with weapons
> and training.

I can't say whether it is common knowledge or not, only whether it is correct or
incorrect.  Iraq bought mostly Soviet arms, with France a strong second.  Iraq had
Soviet military advisers, not American ones.  Iraq broke relations with the U.S. in
1967 and they were not restored until 1984.  Saddam Hussein is hardly our own
creation.

It's a little hard to get exact numbers online, but see
http://www.wf.org/armingiraq.htm or
http://www.1uptravel.com/country-guide-study/iraq/iraq94.html

The U.S. was criticized for selling some "dual-use" items to Iraq which could be
used to produce chemical/biological/nuclear weapons, but it never sold any military
items to Iraq.    There were some allegations that Iraq diverted some American
agricultural loans to buy weapons.  These were investigated and found to be false
(http://www.fumento.com/bomis4.html), but even if Iraq managed to use 100% of that
money for arms it's rather small compared to the loans they got from Saudi Arabia
and other oil nations.

There are strong rumors that the U.S. gave some intelligence help to Iraq when it
looked like they might lose the war they started with Iran.


> (2) The U.S. did arm and train fighters against the Soviet invasion of
> Afghanistan, including Osama bin Laden, but I fail to see how that made him
> hate us.  Nor did the U.S. government train him to hijack airplanes.
>
> Again, where exactly do you think the Afgans got 'Stinger' missiles from
> then.  Again to me this is accepted as fact isn't it.  I'll check the CNN
> website.  I don't think OBL has a pilots license.

Umm, I agreed that the United States DID help rebels in Afghanistan, including bin
Laden.  I don't see how that caused him to hate us.  I also don't see that our
training was necessary for him to carry out the attacks on the U.S.

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