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Dean Esmay is tired of having to debunk one of the Big Lies on the Iraq war time and again, in other words, explain and demonstrate that the United States didn't arm Saddam Hussein.Saddam was not our guy. We did not arm him. He was not our tool or our puppet. We didn't give him tons of money. And if you show me one more time (as so many have) how Donald Rumsfeld shook Saddamn's (sic) hand on one occasion, I'll give you 50 of Harry Truman and Franklin Roosevelt shaking Stalin's hand.Probably a good idea to dig out my "arms sales to Iraq" graphic then, showing exactly who did arm Saddam Hussein. I've created this chart back in March 2003, using sources from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI - not exactly your average BusHitler right-wing warmongers. That's the beauty of it.)
I'm tired of having to answer the Americaphobes. I really am. My patience for it is at an end
The original page still exist physically on my server, but now redirects users to the new site design, and its own permalink here. It was linked to and posted by many blogs, including the prestigious "The Command Post", and even made its way to the dead trees version of the Weekly Standard.
Still, judging by Dean's post, there's apparently a few people out there who didn't get it. So here we go again: Saddam was armed by Soviet Russia, France and China.
The crazy thing is that you don't even need facts, figures and fancy charts to understand that: common sense will do. If you look at it, in the first phase of the Iraq campaign, the Coalition armed forces faced "T-insert-number-here" Russian tanks, MiG warplanes and Republican Guards armed with Kalashnikovs — also produced in China, and notorious for being of lesser quality, and therefore cheaper than the Soviet made AK.
After the Bush Administration had to deal with French opposition and plain treachery at the UN.
It is not, repeat, not a coincidence if Russia, France and China make the Top of the Pops in this chart.
It's just common sense.
While you're at debunking lies about the Iraq war, you might want to check the Wiki Dean and friends are working on: http://www.truthaboutiraq.org/.
Comments
Comments thread (5)
2142 - Grimmy
Grimmy Where I'm at.
Hey there, Mr. Froggy:
You miss the point. We eeveel warmongerizers here in the US of Amerikkka are so sneeky deeky that we managed to sell all of that weaponry to Saddamite the Insane AND route the sales through all those other countries without them being aware.
Yes, we are that good at being eeveel Muahahahahahahahahaha!
2143 - the dissident frogman
the dissident frogman France
Yes... Right. But then, Karl Rove sounds a bit swedish, doesn't it?
That Master Trickster Rove must be the eminence grise of the SIPRI... He'd been manipulating the numbers, I'll wager.
2147 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
Thanks for the graph. It amazes me that leftards can watch their TV news and clearly see all the Soviet weapons and vehicles and yet screech that America armed Iraq. We did in fact sell Saddam TOW misslies and counter-battery radar artillery systems, all of which were used and destroyed during the Iran-Iraq War. And that was all we sold them. We gave them photo recon images. And we worked jointly with France and Italy in helping Iraq build up its medical/pharmecuetical industry, which they promptly used for WMD research and production.
Germany and France and Russia assisted them in building their chemical/pesticide industry. Which they promptly turned to producing nerve agent and mustard agent.
Dual Use. It is not just a function in World of Warcraft!
2148 - 2hotel9
2hotel9 Western Pennsylvania
And get that name correct! Karl "Evil Mastermind" Rove. Don't be dissing Karl, he will send one of his legion of minions to quash you. And drink all your beer. And weewee in your chilli.
2197 - shlemazl
shlemazl
Nice! I may link to your chart next time some idiot starts going on about "Rumsfled supplied chemical weapons to Iraq".