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by Sabinus 54 days ago
>How do you ensure they only use it on that war?

Intelligence agencies. But you can't ensure it.

>Is using chemical weapons on civilian targets in cities and villages not terrorism?

I'm not an expert on the Iran-Iraq war and I'm a bit tired for research ATM but I'm going to assume the USA did not provide it's help for chemical weapons use, and that there was plenty of conventional conflict going on to provide assistance for.

>Anyway, there are earlier and more direct instances of the US sponsoring terrorists groups.

Sure, but we should point to when that happened. Not when the USA supported a government to do something at the same time as they did something bad.
1 comments
pazimzadeh 54 days ago
> I'm a bit tired for research ATM but I'm going to assume

Hilarious but sad that this is the state of HN.

After you get some rest consider reading the article. Maybe you can have it read to you like a audiobook, might be easier? Some of the original CIA documents are at the bottom.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/08/26/exclusive-cia-files-pro...

https://archive.is/XWevr

I pulled some key quotes for you:

  In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq’s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein’s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.

  The Reagan administration decided that it was better to let the attacks continue if they might turn the tide of the war. And even if they were discovered, the CIA wagered that international outrage and condemnation would be muted

  senior U.S. officials were being regularly informed about the scale of the nerve gas attacks

  declassified CIA documents show that Casey and other top officials were repeatedly informed about Iraq’s chemical attacks and its plans for launching more

  The use of chemical weapons in war is banned under the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which states that parties “will exert every effort to induce other States to accede to the” agreement. Iraq never ratified the protocol; the United States did in 1975.

  By 1988, U.S. intelligence was flowing freely to Hussein’s military. That March, Iraq launched a nerve gas attack on the Kurdish village of Halabja in northern Iraq
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