Did Reagan remain allies with Saddam AFTER he used mustard AND nerve gas in 1984?

Answer 1

Yes of course.The story of U.S. involvement with Saddam Hussein in the years before his 1990 attack on Kuwait -- which included large-scale intelligence sharing, supply of cluster bombs through a Chilean front company, and facilitating Iraq's acquisition of chemical and biological precursors -- is a topical example of the underside of U.S. foreign policy. It is a world in which deals can be struck with dictators, human rights violations sometimes overlooked, and accommodations made with arms proliferators, all on the principle that the "enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Throughout the 1980s, Hussein's Iraq was the sworn enemy of Iran, then still in the throes of an Islamic revolution. U.S. officials saw Baghdad as a bulwark against militant Shiite extremism and the fall of pro-American states such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and even Jordan -- a Middle East version of the "domino theory" in Southeast Asia. That was enough to turn Hussein into a strategic partner and for U.S. diplomats in Baghdad to routinely refer to Iraqi forces as "the good guys," in contrast to the Iranians, who were depicted as "the bad guys."

A review of thousands of declassified government documents and interviews with former policymakers shows that U.S. intelligence and logistical support played a crucial role in shoring up Iraqi defenses against the "human wave" attacks by suicidal Iranian troops. The administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush authorized the sale to Iraq of numerous items that had both military and civilian applications, including poisonous chemicals and deadly biological viruses, such as anthrax and bubonic plague.
Declassified U.S. government documents indicate that the U.S. government had confirmed that Iraq was using chemical weapons "almost daily" during the Iran-Iraq conflict as early as 1983. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld even met with Saddam Hussein the same day the UN released a report that Iraq had used mustard gas and tabun nerve agent against Iranian troops.[38] The New York Times reported from Baghdad on 29 March 1984, that "American diplomats pronounce themselves satisfied with Iraq and the U.S., and suggest that normal diplomatic ties have been established in all but name."[39] The chairman of the Senate committee, Don Riegle, said: “The executive branch of our government approved 771 different export licenses for sale of dual-use technology to Iraq. I think it’s a devastating record”.[40] According to the Washington Post, the CIA began in 1984 secretly to give Iraq intelligence that Iraq used to "calibrate" its mustard gas attacks on Iranian troops. In August, the CIA establishes a direct Washington-Baghdad intelligence link, and for 18 months, starting in early 1985, the CIA provided Iraq with "data from sensitive U.S. satellite reconnaissance photography...to assist Iraqi bombing raids." The Post’s source said that this data was essential to Iraq’s war effort.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDABe8AOuCQ&mode=related&search=

Answer 2

Thats a yes. They weren't severed until Saddams invasion of Kuwait, which some government dummy basically told him would be O.K.

Answer 3

Why not? Reagan liked mustard, ketchup, and all the condiments without discriminating. Seriously though, this country got pretty panty-waisted about things like that almost overnight.

Answer 4

yes and he was still our favorite dictator up until the Gulf War in 1991. Bush 41 did not say much when the chemical attacks took place in 1987.
Cheney or Rumfeld did not have squat to say either when he was there in the 1990s.

Answer 5

Sucked up like a pilot fish on a sandbar shark

Answer 6

he sure did. but then Saddam was in war with ayatollah Khomeini( Iran) and that made the gassing O.K

Answer 7

I am pretty sure that is true...though unfortunate.

Ever hear of necessary evils?

Iran was considered the bigger threat at the time.