The real cost of IRAQ: PTSD and the second war

[Undertoad]

Originally Posted by richlevy

Doesn't it give you pause to think that he was our ally at one time? As were Marcos, Hussein, and a number of other thugs. We build them up, equip them, and then make it some poor shmucks job to go in there and clean it up.

Like the nature of this very thread, don't let reality get in the way of the little fairy tales in your head, Rich.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by richlevy
Doesn't it give you pause to think that he was our ally at one time? As were Marcos, Hussein, and a number of other thugs. We build them up, equip them, and then make it some poor shmucks job to go in there and clean it up.

Originally Posted by Undertoad

Like the nature of this very thread, don't let reality get in the way of the little fairy tales in your head, Rich.

So which part of my 'reality' are you challenging?

Marcos ,

Given its past colonial association and continued security and economic interests in the Philippines, the United States never was a disinterested party in Philippine politics. On June 1, 1983, the United States and the Philippines signed a five-year memorandum of agreement on United States bases, which committed the United States administration to make "best efforts" to secure US$900 million in economic and military aid for the Philippines between 1984 and 1988. The agreement reflected both United States security concerns at a time of increased Soviet-Western tension in the Pacific and its continued faith in the Marcos regime.

Hussein

Shaking Hands: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein greets Donald Rumsfeld, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, in Baghdad on December 20, 1983.

or Stalin?

[Schrodinger's Cat]

Ally - 1. One that is allied with another, especially by treaty: entered the war as an ally of France. 2. One in helpful association with another: legislators who are allies on most issues.

As Ayotallah Khomenei’s Islamic Revolution took hold in Iran, the United States saw Teheran as its main adversary in the Middle East, as did Iraq. Consequently, with huge levels of American support–over $40 billion in weapons and technology through the 1980s, with many transactions “off book”–Iraq fought against Iran for nearly a decade. In the latter stages of battle, eventually won by Iraq, U.S. officers provided intelligence and tactical advice to the Iraqis, all the while Baghdad was using chemical and biological weapons on the battlefield to suppress the Iranians.
http://hnn.us/articles/1066.html

•James Baker received an SD memo stating that Iraq was diligently developing chemical, biological, and new missiles, and that Baker was to "express our interest in broadening U.S.-Iraqi ties" to Iraqi Under-Secretary Hamdoon.

•Although the CIA and the Bush (Senior) Administration knew that Iraq’s Ministry of Industry and Military Industrialization (MIMI) "controlled entities were involved in Iraq's clandestine nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs and missile programs ... the Bush administration [approved] dozens of export licenses that [allowed] United States and foreign firms to ship sophisticated U.S. dual-use equipment to MIMI-controlled weapons factories".

•By October 1989, when all international banks had cut off loans to Iraq, President Bush signed National Security Directive (NSD) 26 mandating closer links with Iraq and $1 billion in agricultural loan guarantees.

•According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq uses to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort.

•Later in the year the Reagan Administration secretly began to allow Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt to transfer to Iraq U.S. howitzers, helicopters, bombs and other weapons. Reagan personally asked Italy’s Prime Minister Guilio Andreotti to channel arms to Iraq http://www.casi.org.uk/info/usdocs/usiraq80s90s.html

The United States re-established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on 26 November 1984.


Sounds like an ally to me.