Recently, the US House of Representatives approved a war powers measure giving Bush the opportunity to invade Iraq. Although Bush has offered various arguments supporting an invasion, the actual history of US-Iraqi dealings speaks of certain hipocrocy to some people regarding the current US war plans.
Iraq was at war with Iran for much of the 1980's. During that time, the US was clearly in support of Iraq. In 1984, the US restored diplomatic relations with the Iraqi government and removed Iraq from the list of "terrorist nations". Several times during that decade, the US authorized sales of attack helicopters and other weapons of war to Iraq. That the US supported Iraq during this decade is clear. Then, in the mid-80's, it was discovered that Iraq actually used chemical weapons against Iran. The use of these weapons increased throughout the 80's (Bush actually mentions this in his recent speeches, citing the attacks against villages in Iraq). However, the reaction of the US government to these "terrorist" actions was muted. In fact, the US supplied Iraq with billions of dollars of aid in the form of money and weapons throughout that decade. The US went so far as the help Iraq plan military maneuvers even though they knew that chemical weapons would be employed, the CIA actually aided Iraq in its mustard gas attacks against Iranian troops. Further, the US government allowed the sale of biological agents such as anthrax (a weapon of mass destruction) by US companies to the Iraqi government. After the 1989 gas attack that killed 5000 Kurds, US aid to Iraq actually increased ("Some History of U.S., Iraq Dealings"). About all the US did in response to the lethal use of chemical weapons by Iraq was to issue a warning. In late 1990, the US government actually expressed complete disinterest in the Iraqi border dispute with Kuwait, saying (through the US Ambassador to Baghdad):.
"The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America" ("Some History of U.
