Why did the US sale arms to Iraq and support Sadam and trained Bin Laden?

Question

Rumsfled met Sadam back then.

Answer 1

The RNC set up these guys back during the Carter administration. We promised WMD's and combat training if the middle east dudes would hold our hostages till after the election.

Reagan got elected, Carter was free to be a humanitarian and Sadam and Osama got their presents from our government. This is the mess Ollie North found himself in the middle of after the WMD bargain was discovered.

North refused to cooperate and the RNC made him a hero. From there it was all downhill to where we are today.

One of the longest run and well executed "cons" in the history of our great country.

Answer 2

We sold arms to Iraq because they weren't as bad as Iran in the 1980s. It was a tough choice, but it was the best one at the time.
We never trained or gave aid to Bin Laden's group of mujahadeen in the Russia-Afghanistan war. We did aid some of them, but not the group that Bin Laden was in; they specifically refused aid from us. And even if we would have, it would have been the same situation with Iraq in the 80s. In such global struggles, sometimes difficult decisions have to be made that don't always turn out to be 100% great for everyone 20 years down the road. We had no way to know that Bin Laden would turn out to be a terrorist bent on world domination even if we had supported him, which we didn't.

Answer 3

Afghanistan?
er... no...

During the 50s and 60s the US sank millions into Iran. The royal family of Iran were our loyal and unconditional allies. Then, there was a revolution in Iran, and the Ayatola Khomeni took over. his radical muslim goverment instantly took the US to be the great satan, and severed all diplomatic relationship with the USA. Panicked to lose what at the time was considered to be the U.S's greatest ally in the middle east, the U.S. turned to Iraq, who was Iran's long time enemy (since the wars of Persia vs Babilon) eager to crush Iran, Sadam proptly received us with open arms.... but during the late 80s and 90s when he decided not to be our lapdog anymore and dissobey us (immagine that) he decided that expansionism for Iraq would be cool... so he invaded Kuwait, and planned to invade Saudi Arabia next and so on and so forth.... etc

Answer 4

First off, the US never trained or gave aid to bin Laden, at least not directly or knowingly. As for giving Iraq arms...Iraq was in a war with Iran and, of course, the enemy of my enemy. After the Iraqi missile attack on the USS Stark, that aid ended.

Answer 5

We supported Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war because Iran was worse than Iraq back then. And Bin Laden has never even been in the U.S. before.

Answer 6

We have Jimmy Carter to thank for the Bin Laden issue.

Answer 7

Because we were arming Russia's enemies. You want to know why they hate us now? Because we left them in Afghanistan to die, and refused to continue selling them arms. It is a crazy political thing, whether you agree with all the crazy politics- you have to agree, that you would hate someone who left you to die. i think the fault starts with the Regan administration and is still going on in the Bush administration. There will always be deals that are made behind the scenes, and we will never know about them. Paranoid?, probably just alittle.

Answer 8

Because they fell for that old "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" gimmick. Another issue is the profitability of the arms industry. I can't remember where I read about this, but apparently there's a LOT of money to be made in the international arms race, and the U.S. is one of the biggest arms dealers in the word.

Answer 9

Anakin to Darth Vader. The good guys some time a go are now the evil ones.

Answer 10

Because the idiots think if they share with those types they'll calm down and be our friends. The best approach is actually to get tough with them and stay tough. Haven't you seen the way they interact with each other?