A major study by the UN and Iraqi officials found that life in Iraq has decayed significantly since foreign forces invaded, following a general trend seen in most sectors since the imposition of a global embargo in 1990.
*Estimates are that about 100,000 Iraqi citizens died as a result of Saddam's brutality--over a 25 year period. That works out to about 11 per day. Now, even if you are gullible enough to believe Bush's figures, about 60,000 Iraqis have died at the hands of Bush's colonial invasion force. That's in 5 years, about 33 per day!* In February 1982, when Saddam was busy with Iran Iraq war, Iraq was removed from a US Government list of alleged sponsors of terrorism. Iraq was now receiving major arms shipments from the Soviet Union, France and the US has just opened up as a potential weapons supplier. In December 1983, the US sends a special Middle East envoy Donald Rumsfeld, the future US secretary of defense under the administration of George W. Bush, the highest-ranking American official to visit Baghdad in more than 16 years. At their meeting on 20 December Rumsfeld tells Saddam that the US is ready to resume full diplomatic relations. Rumsfeld returns to Baghdad in 1984, has meetings with the Iraqi foreign minister on 24 March, the same day that the UN releases a report that Iraq is using mustard gas and the nerve agent against Iranian troops. The US State Department also acknowledges Iraq's actions, releasing a statement on 5 March saying that "available evidence indicates that Iraq has used lethal chemical weapons." Nevertheless, full diplomatic relations between Iraq and the US are restored in November 1984, allowing the US to provide Iraq with further aid to fight the war. It is later reported that the US aid includes battle-planning assistance. According to a report published in 'The New York Times' on 18 August 2002, more that 60 officers of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) secretly supplied Iraq with detailed information on Iranian deployments, tactical planning for battles, plans for air strikes and bomb-damage assessments. *Satellite photographs of the war front were also provided by the CIA. * One former member of the program is quoted as saying the Pentagon "wasn't so horrified by Iraq's use of (poisonous) gas. *It was just another way of killing people* - whether with a bullet or phosgene, it didn't make any difference." The British Government also becomes entangled in Iraq's chemical weapons programs, secretly providing a British-based company with financial backing for the construction of a chlorine plant capable of producing the precursors necessary to manufacture mustard gas and nerve agents. The plant, Falluja 2, is located about 60 km west of Baghdad. It is later reported by 'The Guardian' newspaper that the British Government, at the time headed by Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher, was aware that the plant could be used in the production of chemical weapons. In the Kuwait liberation desert storm, Americans carpet bombed thousands of fleeing Iraqi forces at the Kuwait/Iraqi road near Jahra. The several hundred burning Kuwaiti oil wells especially the high pressure Burgan oil wells were spewing oil like fountains and the fires reached a height of nearly 6 storey building! And the entire Ahmadi area of major oil fields, gathering centres and refineries was like entering hell!! Who really set the oil wells on fire is subject to speculation, as at that time, American Red Adair was the major oil well fire extinguishing/capping outfit. During the liberation, the Kurdish uprising was initially supported by the Bush senior administration and then withdrew it's support, resulting in carnageof thousands of Kurdish. Again, the Kurdish are not considered Iraqis as they are spread over Iraq, Iran and Turkey. They are considered a terrorist organisation. You can tell by the fact that Turkey is currently fighting and bombing them now with American and Iraqi blessing! I have taken the advise of a prominent contributer and googled, yahoo'd etc for this info and have selected what suits me. (No pun intended). Maurice D.
