Why did we support Iraq?

[Fluffy]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

Should we be held accountable for supporting Iraq?

Should a country be allowed to give this sort of aid without the explicit approval of its citizens (i.e. a referendum)?

 

[K.Venugopal]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

Should we be held accountable for supporting Iraq?

Should a country be allowed to give this sort of aid without the explicit approval of its citizens (i.e. a referendum)?

It must be remembered that at the time of the begining of the Iran-Iraq war, 52 Americans were being held hostage in the American Embassy in Tehran. Which country would not have wanted to hit back at a hostage-taking nation, whichever way? Alas, the world would have been a safer place today if America had then helped Iraq by bombarding Iran and got rid of the Muslim fundamentalist regime in Iran, who are today on the verge of making the nuclear bomb.

 

[gnomon]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

Should we be held accountable for supporting Iraq?

Should a country be allowed to give this sort of aid without the explicit approval of its citizens (i.e. a referendum)?

I think our support of Iraq has more to it than the Wiki article states. Our involvement in the Middle East in the 20th Century cannot be adequately reasoned without mention of the Cold War and the Soviet Union.

Should we be held accountable? In what way. We have more accountability in Iran over the issue of installing the Shah. Of course, so does the U.N., several individual nations during that time including the U.K. and those former soviet nations, primarily Russia. The U.N., in my opinion, is ineffectual.

I'm not sure about referendums. Legally, if we put such foreign policy to a vote by direct democracy pretty much all aid would be subject to the same decision making. The problem is that such a government on a large scale hasn't really been tried. And there is a lot of truth to the concept of the ignorant masses. Our government was designed to hopefully prevent such sort of direct and often misguided majority because quite frankly, the majority of Americans fall under the category of too stupid or too ignorant.

 

[Don Penguinoini]

Blair just loves Bush(or did) He has left the U.K. in a digustingly huge mess.

 

[gnomon]

Blair just loves Bush(or did) He has left the U.K. in a digustingly huge mess.

 

[Yes Man]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

Probably because Iran was seen as "unfriendly" after the Iranian Revolution against the American supported shah and a certain hostage crisis.

Should we be held accountable for supporting Iraq?

I'm not sure what you mean.

Should a country be allowed to give this sort of aid without the explicit approval of its citizens (i.e. a referendum)?

I agree with Gnomon, generally, people are too ignorant or have no knowledge of what's really going on. The memories of Western interventionism and imperialism are still quite fresh in certain people's minds in some parts of the Middle East. However that is not to say that there are not ignorant politicians who do not grasp the entirety of the situation. But to answer this question is to open a whole other can of worms due to the different political idealogies at stake.

 

[Francine]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

It's a classic trick. First support one side, then the other, letting neither side become a regional superpower.

 

[Somkid]

Well, we gave gave them the weapons and the technology but not the education to go along with them. I was reading a post on the web the other day about Star Trek and the "Prime Directive" non interference with less advanced societies. Obviously this is sci-fi but someone put forth the argument that it wasn't fair to with hold technology from others and I pointed out that you never heard of the Middle East when they did not have technology. A society needs to grow and mature before they say build a nuclear reactor, an advanced society would use it to generate energy for its people while a non-advanced nation would use it as a weapon to extort more technology. I think the reason many nations supported Iraq in the beginning was to educate them since they already had the technology but at some point the freeing of Iraq turned into a personal vendetta and a "holy war" thus defeating the purpose.

 

[kai]

governments change alliances all the time britain and france are allies now and we had been enemies for centuries , germany is also our ally , and the US is an ally of Japan , thats the way it goes .

 

[Yerda]

Why did we support Iraq in the Iran-Iraq war?

Because we liked Iran less?

Have you looked at the relevant media on the issue?

Foreign office press releases?

Parliamentary debates?

Those might be useful.

Should a country be allowed to give this sort of aid without the explicit approval of its citizens (i.e. a referendum)?

What sort of aid did we provide?

 

[yossarian22]

What sort of aid did we provide?

Chemical weaponry is the big one. And some cruise missiles if I remember correctly. Iraq may have gotten them from the USSR

 

[Francine]

Chemical weaponry is the big one. And some cruise missiles if I remember correctly. Iraq may have gotten them from the USSR

That's okay, we gave Blackwater some CS gas to even the playing field.