Well, a small point 97% of any WoMD Iraq ever had were supplied from the Soviet Union nations, predominantly East Germany and Czechoslovakia IIRC..... 'We' supported Saddam in the past, but we are far away from being the ones who supplied the most arms/weapons material (look at France and Russia for that!).
True, but I'm pretty sure the US sold them Antrax and VS gas during the Iraq/Iran war... so strangely enough, the statement is pretty correct.... we knew he had anthrax because we sold it to him....
Well, this is one bit that is open to interpretation (the Anthrax) The Anthrax that was sold was $75 worth of samples (at least one batch of), delivered from a US firm to the iraqi ministry of higher education. Now, one can say one of two things: 1) The Americans knew such supply would not be for peaceful and legitimate use, and that it would be weaponised, but sold it regardless. 2) The Americans, knowing Anthrax is common as a natural disease that blights livestock and farming in parts of Iraq, thought that by supplying samples to what on face value is a legitimate government agency with links to research institutions who would conduct research into anthrax with the aim of finding preventative measures or those to minimise its effects. The same 'dual use' mantra can be applied to many things exported to Iraq. One chemical I have seen highlighted in discussions before has been Chlorine, and how awful it is that the US government won't allow Chlorine exports from US companies to Iraq, when Chlorine can be legitimately used as part of water treatment. 'US stops chlorine sales and Iraqis have no clean water!!!' cries the left wing websites. But then, Chlorine gas is a crude chemical weapon on its own, and chlorine is apparently a precursor to other nastier chemical weapons. One thing I feel must be considered is, did the US government and US companies export many of such dual-use (legitimate and weapon) materials in good faith, only for the Iraqis to use them to 'do bad', or did the US administration and US based companies turn a blind eye and/or did not care that the Iraqis were using such chemicals for WMD purposes? Or a mixture of either turning a blind eye or honestly believing their product was for 'legal' use from company to company... Make up your own mind, as the only people that *really* know are understandably quiet over there part in what was sold, and under what pretences
