On August 18, the New York Times carried a front-page story headlined,
'Officers say U.S. aided Iraq despite the use of gas'. Quoting anonymous US "senior military officers", the NYT "revealed" that in the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan covertly provided "critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war".
It may have occurred to readers that the use of poison gas is not uniquely awful; not significantly worse than, for example, carpet bombing peasant villages in Vietnam, or spraying depleted uranium around Southern Iraq. Beyond the propaganda, we find that this obvious thought has also occurred to the warriors against terrorism. Retired US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer Walter Lang, told the New York Times that "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern". Rather, what concerned the DIA, CIA and the Reagan administration was halting the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Who can forget Halabja? Almost everyone.
'Officers say U.S. aided Iraq despite the use of gas'. Quoting anonymous US "senior military officers", the NYT "revealed" that in the 1980s, the administration of US President Ronald Reagan covertly provided "critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war".
It may have occurred to readers that the use of poison gas is not uniquely awful; not significantly worse than, for example, carpet bombing peasant villages in Vietnam, or spraying depleted uranium around Southern Iraq. Beyond the propaganda, we find that this obvious thought has also occurred to the warriors against terrorism. Retired US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer Walter Lang, told the New York Times that "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern". Rather, what concerned the DIA, CIA and the Reagan administration was halting the spread of Iran's Islamic revolution to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Who can forget Halabja? Almost everyone.