As the U.S. (and U.K.) get set to bomb yet another country, to blow yet more people to smithereens, to use the excuse of a “red line”—because, don’tchya know, murdering people by gassing them is so much worse than murdering them by blowing their brains out—that’s just logic—can’t you numbskulls see that? Our overlords can.
As this relentless onslaught towards war continues, comes this news:
Exclusive: CIA Files Prove America Helped Saddam as He Gassed Iran
The U.S. knew Hussein was launching some of the worst chemical attacks in history—and still gave him a hand.
And hey, guess what—that article comes from Foreign Policy Magazine—you know, that crazy left-wing radical publication!
All those out there who cling to the notion that the U.S. is The Good Guys, that we wear The White Hats, that the U.S. can do no wrong, and that if it does, it’s only because “mistakes were made,” a notion simultaneously so insane, childish, and psychopathic that anyone who spouts it should be committed, what are those people going to say now?
Oh, I know. Denial.
Denial, denial, denial. It’s still, after tribalism, the strongest human characteristic. Just as Obamabots deny that their Fearless Leader is killing people left and right and is no better than George W. Bush, so, too, do right-wing war mongers deny that the U.S. could ever do something wrong militarily (taxes are bad, you see, except when they support slaughter; then, magically, they’re good).
So the “red line” of chemical weapons is apparently only a kinda sorta orange line when the U.S. is crossing it. Oh, but wait—I’m sure that story isn’t even true! Forget what the CIA files say. I’m sure it’s all a big misunderstanding. I’m sure this guy has some skeletons in his closet and needs to be discredited:
U.S. officials have long denied acquiescing to Iraqi chemical attacks, insisting that Hussein’s government never announced he was going to use the weapons. But retired Air Force Col. Rick Francona, who was a military attaché in Baghdad during the 1988 strikes, paints a different picture.
“The Iraqis never told us that they intended to use nerve gas. They didn’t have to. We already knew,” he told Foreign Policy.
. . . It has been previously reported that the United States provided tactical intelligence to Iraq at the same time that officials suspected Hussein would use chemical weapons. But the CIA documents, which sat almost entirely unnoticed in a trove of declassified material at the National Archives in College Park, Md., combined with exclusive interviews with former intelligence officials, reveal new details about the depth of the United States’ knowledge of how and when Iraq employed the deadly agents. They show that senior U.S. officials were being regularly informed about the scale of the nerve gas attacks. They are tantamount to an official American admission of complicity in some of the most gruesome chemical weapons attacks ever launched.
So what happens now? Will the war mongers and chicken hawks walk back their support of the proposed U.S. bombing of Syria? Will they walk back their support of the Iraq invasion and the ongoing war in Afghanistan? Will they admit that the U.S. lies, as a matter of course? Will they open their eyes?
Don’t bet on it.
Lisa Simeone is a writer, editor, political activist, Glamour Girl, and radio host. She publishes ABombazine, where this originally appeared.
I remember reading Time magazine showing pictures of dead adults and children from gas attacks done by Saddam. This was long before Reagan was president and before the Iran/Iraq war. The world didn’t seem to care too much back then. Personally, I would rather die from gas than bullets, this is from experiencing the effects of both.