
Remembering the Iran-Iraq War - lermontov
https://notevenpast.org/remembering-the-iran-iraq-war/
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Synaesthesia
What's effaced from history is how closely the US supported Hussein's Iraq
throughout the 80's, right up to the invasion in 1991. The US removed Saddam
from the official terrorists lists, sold him advanced weaponry and weapon
producing capabilities, including chemical weapons, and nuclear capabilities,
at a time when he committed his most egregious crimes, including the gassing
of the Kurds. Just before he invaded Kuwait Saddam was even visited by a high
level us delegation led by Bob Dole.

[https://chomsky.info/20020901/](https://chomsky.info/20020901/)

~~~
TheGirondin
What's even more unbelive is that the US is allies with Germany and Japan
after WWII, and relations with Cuba reversed after they allied themselves with
the USSR.

It's almost like nothing in international affairs is static, things change,
and things being one way in one decade and another in a different decade
doesn't mean anything or anyone is "wrong."

~~~
popmystack
None of those are really comparable. Nice try though.

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laotzu
This is such an obvious example of the divide to conquer strategy which is
still alive and well in the region. Iran Contra revealed the MIC was selling
weapons to both Iran and Iraq at the same time.

Profit from endless weapons sales, profit from cheap oil, and keep the dollar
strong by only selling the oil for the dollar. 3 birds with one stone.

[http://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro](http://www.theguardian.com/business/2003/feb/16/iraq.theeuro)

And now here we are, oil is cheaper than it has been since the invasion of
Iraq in 2003 and the dollar is more valuable than it has been in decades
(relative to other currencies) all the while the instability in the middle
east continues to increase.

[http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-
char...](http://www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart)

"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous."

~~~
lintiness
basically every argument you make is cherry picked. the dollar was near multi-
decade lows ~2 years ago. oil was at near multi-decade highs ~2 years ago.

the only thing consistent in anything you said was mid-east instability. the
mid-east has been unmanageable / unstable for several eons.

~~~
Cyph0n
And why do you think that is? Could it be the arbitrary borders drawn by the
colonial powers? Or perhaps the carefully chosen dictators placed by some
great power or other? I hate it when people make the instability in the Middle
East seem like its entirely our (i.e. people of the Middle East) fault.

~~~
lintiness
i haven't presented anything remotely resembling an argument of causality for
mid-east dysfunction, nor do i want to. what i'd like is for people with
political axes to grind to back their arguments with facts instead of imagined
nonsense.

~~~
Cyph0n
Of course.

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JBReefer
Why does any discussion around the Middle East produce incredibly shallow,
edgy comments?

It's incredibly, incredibly, incredibly complicated stuff, and the discourse
is all soundbites.

~~~
Synaesthesia
Read Noam Chomsky, a lot of the facts aren't made public, particularly the
huge US neocolonial interest in the region, spanning back a century.

~~~
JBReefer
Noam Chomsky doesn't have the answer. You'd need a PhD on the subject of a
single conflict in order to talk about it with authority. He does not have
that, though he is a gifted linguist.

You're talking about conflicts that legitimately have roots to the beginning
of human history.

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lazyjones
Let's see if history repeats itself. The "West" armed and supported Saddam
Hussein's brutal regime and he went to war with Iran. Today, the West is
arming the brutal regime of the Saudis and they just bombed Iran's embassy in
Yemen, things are heating up.

~~~
Cyph0n
Direct conflict is unlikely. Both sides are content with the proxy wars being
waged in Yemen and Syria. Why involve your own army when you can pay some
other country to do it? Besides, Saudia has a large Shia community, and Iran
has a sizeable Sunni community, and I believe both countries are engaged in
trade.

~~~
e12e
I hope you're right - but note that Russia and NATO are already too close for
comfort in Syria. There’s a limit to the number of fighter jets that can be
accidentially (or intentionally) shot down before escalation becomes almost
inevitable.

It's not inconceivable that we'll see NATO special forces casualities in
Russian air raids (or vice-versa).

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payamb
The only way to stabilise middle east is to stop selling arms, I'm not a fan
of conspiracy theory but there are parties benefiting from heating up shite
and sunni confrontation, Not Middle eastern people definitely.

I believe these two group can live in peace together if dictator regimes fueld
by arms companies let them to do so. Its all about propaganda , Heating up
emotion and selling more arms.

\- Iranian.

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transfire
I don't think the fact that two armies fought a war across contrived borders
makes them any less contrived.

