Return-Path: <@OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU:DEMON@DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU>
X-Envelope-to: POLITICS@OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU
X-VMS-To: IN%"POLITICS@OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU"
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.politics
Date:         Fri, 22 Jan 1993 16:44:09 -0400
From:         The Integral Differential <DEMON@DESIRE.WRIGHT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: 12:01 PM
Comments: To: POLITICS@OHSTVMA.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU

>>         Whoa!  Iraq was on the A list for enemies right up until they invaded
>> Iran, at which point they went on the "lesserr of two evils" list.  There
 wasn
>> a "tilt" towards favoring Iraq until 1987, when it looked like they would
 lose
>> to Iran in the Iran-Iraq war.
>>         And Iraq was, right up until the failed coup, a client of the USSR.
>
>We started giving support to Iraq (if I remember correctly - this was
>public info but not heavily publicized, so I don't know the facts as
>well as I wish to) either after the Tehran Embassy was taken or soon
>after Reagan became president (I don't know which), but I know that
>Iraq recieved spy satellite information as well as arms from the US
>at least in the mid 1980s. Heck, Iraq had (dunno about now - the DS

        We gave intelligence to them from almost the start of the war.  (At
that time) we didn't view them as a threat, but we did Iran.
        The active support came in when we started convoying tankers into
Kuwait.  (So Kuwait could sell oil to get money to loan to Iraq.)

>pilots had a field day) Chieftain tanks, the #2 British design. Iraqi
>uniforms were bought from a supply of British desert uniforms they
>sold a few years ago. Sounds like a straight USSR client state to me! B)

        A majority (certainly >95%) of Iraqi armored vehicles are (were) of
Soviet and Chinese manufacture.  Planes were mostly Soviet and French.
Infantry weapons: Soviet and Chinese.
        The USSR armed Iraq.  Iraq started looking to the west for loans in the
mid-80s to finance the war with Iran.

>>         Well, Bush thought he had one in Saddam.  Like he thought he had one
 i
>> Noriega.  Hopefully the pattern of dictators turning (or putting the US in a
>> bad situation, a la the Philippines and Haiti) will discourage future
 coddling
>
>Yeah, there are only, what, 170 nation-states in the world? The
>amount of dictators who used to be good friends of Bush must be
>almost used up by now!  B)

        He never got around to South America....
>
>> >> EXACTLY.  After 12 years of Republican leadership, all of a sudden
>> >> Reagan and Bush are seen as the tyrants that made our country bad.
>> >> So, we elect Clinton to make things better?  Shyeah!  Right!  As if!
>
>> >All of the sudden? I've been posting dire messages of impending doom
>> >for YEARS now and this is supposed to be sudden? Wake up and smell
>> >the brocolli!
>
>>         Sour grapes. :)
>
>Why not? B)
>
>> >"foreign policy genius" before that created OPEC, started a long
>
>>         ?  Nixon "created" OPEC?  Did he leap tall buildings also? :)
>
>"Able to violate the constitution in a single bound!" As I understand
>it, Nixon and Kissenger wanted Saudi to have some F-16s or something,
>but with the nature of oil at that time, King Fahd or whoever ran things
>then didn't have the liquid assets. (PNI)

        Couldn't have been F-16s.  Those post-date Nixon.  (Unless it was a
pre-order.)

>The organization of OPEC allowed Saudi to buy those jets. And OH so
>much more.  B) I'd be more than happy to read up on this and see what
>documentary evidence there is to it.
>Dave

        Sure, sounds interesting.

Brett'
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU