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Originally Posted by hkbajwa  Of course you also gave Saddam and the Iraqis every reason to trust and love the US when you went ahead and sold the same weaponry to Iran.
I have always found it tragicomic that the two most hated nations in the "axis of evil" were perfectly acceptable to deal with when there was a chance to make a profit. Never mind the fact that it made the war bloodier and last longer than it might have otherwise.
Irangate - the oft forgotten scandal | You are correct; Hkbajwa. I wrote in another post in a different thread about how the US will always deal with any government- no matter whom, as long as it is in our financial interest to do so. It is our credibility that is certainly in question here.Can anybody here tell me that we would have even invaded Iraq in Desert Storm if gasoline was $1.50 a gallon? I doubt it. I mentioned the government of Ferdinand Marcos of the Phillipines. Nobody except maybe the Romanovs of he early 1900's in Russia bled the lifeblood of their people more. What did we do to stop Marcos? Nothing. Why? Because he always had guaranteed the US the two Major miltary installations we had there. It was only after the Filipino people decided to rid themselves of Marcos that we would even speak out against him. Iraq and Iran are no different. As long as we have a financial stake in the Middle East we will continue to treat with any such government. Our credibility is further damaged by our history in Vietnam. We showed the world that we will not stay to finish the job thatwe proclaimed had to be done. This is the lack of the exit strategy I speak of when it comes to involving American forces anywhere in the world. We don't seem to plan for this; and we will continue to lose Amrican lives in any such situations unecessarily until we adopt one. |