On Wed, 10 Dec 2003 16:30:40 GMT, Chad Irby wrote:

In article ,
"tw" wrote:

You know, people keep claiming that "supported him for so long" bit,
when all that happened was a short-term information trade during the war
with Iran, along with some sales of a few small helicopters (cancelled
after they started using them for non-civilian purposes)

Forty Bell 214STs and approximately 85 Hughes 300s and 500s were
delivered to Iraq, and were in service just before GW1. That's hardly
'a few small helicopters'.

and some
pesticides (yes, really pesticides, not chemical weapons as some have
claimed). It lasted a total of less than four years in the early 1980s,
and stopped *before* Iraq used chemical weapons versus the Kurds.

Nicely chosen wording.... the reconnaissance data that America
provided to Iraq was being provided at the time that Iraq was using
chemical weapons against _Iran_. You might note as well that Mark
Pythian, in his book _Arming Iraq_ says that a number of the 214s were
used in the gassing of the Kurdish town of Halabja.

Scott