From: Sandy Harris
On 2/27/10, Subash <[email protected]> wrote:
> elsewhere all along, and i would just like to say that both al qaeda
> and saddam were creations of the US in their proxy wars against the
> former USSR and Iran respectively. one has to be really naive to play a
> politics of convenience and not expect it to boomerang badly sometime
> or the other...
I agree with the basic notion that many of America's difficulties are
brought on by their own policies. If you'd called Taliban a creation of
the CIA and Pakistani intelligence, I'd have agreed with that, too.
However, I think you are overstating the case; the examples you
give seem wrong to me.
Certainly Al Qaeda had a role in the Soviet vs Afghan war, and were
heavily backed by the US ally (some would say puppet) Saudi Arabia,
almost certainly with US approval. For all I know, they may have had
US aid as well. However, that is rather different from being a
"creation of the US".
As for Saddam, he was vice president and a key player in the
Iraqi gov't from about 1970, back when the Shah was still in
power in Iran and a close US ally. You cannot blame the US
for creating Saddam's regime either.
Actually you can. Saddam came to power in Iraq through a CIA backed
coup. We were backing Iraq at the time as a counterfoil to USSR who were
backing Syria.
Still Iraq was pretty much a nothing happening backwater until their
1980s war with revolutionary Iran. Ever wonder where Saddam GOT the
chemical weapons he used in that war (on both Iran's forces and his own
people)?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTldYbqlJc8
Ronald Reagan's & Bechtel Corporation's personal representative.
Some curious numbers:
In 1980 Iraq had 2700 tanks, Iran had 1740 -
by 1987 Iraq had 4500 tanks, Iran had 1000
In 1980 Iraq had 332 fighters, Iran had 445 -
by 1987 Iraq had 500+ fighters, Iran had 65
In 1980 Iraq had 40 helicopters, Iran had 500 -
by 1987 Iraq had 150 helicopters, Iran had 60
In 1980 Iraq had 1000 artillery, Iran had 1000+ -
by 1987 Iraq had 4000+ artillery, Iran had 1000+
In July 1987, the US sponsored UN Resolution 598 calling for cease fire
and return to prewar boundaries. At that time Iraq had lost significant
territories and "accepted" the resolution. Iran did not accept.
In April 1988, Iraq regrouped its forces and began a major offensive,
taking the Al Faw penninsula and regaining the ground it had previously
lost around Basra. In July 1988, Iraq attacked a Kurdish village in
Iran, Zardan, with the same chemical weapons it had previously used on
Iraqi Kurds at Halabja. In August 1988, Iran accepted UN Resolution 598.
Immediately after signing Iraq launched a 10 day offensive western Iran
using the MEK - Peoples Mujahedin of Iran. Iran was able to put down the
MEK incursion after the US forced Saddam to withdraw close air support.
In Novemember 1988, George H.W.Bush was elected President.
About the MEK. The Peoples Mujahedin of Iran was a terrorist
organization that predates the Iraq-Iran war, moved its headquarters to
Iraq in 1979. The MEK was STILL active from Iraq after the Gulf War,
operating out of the northern Kurdish areas effectively controlled by
the U.S. under the northern no-fly zone.
The MEK was still openly active in Iraq in 2004 while I was stationed
there, despite having been declared a "terrorist organization" by the
Clinton administration in 1997 - although part of the organization had
split off into "Al Qaeda in Iraq".
The MEK was still active as late as 2009 when the U.S. forces in Iraq
turned control of the MEK base at Camp Ashraf in Diyala province over to
control of the Iraq central governemnt.
Chalmers Johnson has a good take on how it works, and at what cost.
http://www.amazon.com/Blowback-Second-Consequences-American-Project/dp/0805075593
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