- Almost 20 years have passed since the conclusion of 20th
century's longest, most erosive war which was brutally imposed on the defenseless
people of Iran by a belligerent and aggressive dictator who was finally
pushed to death by the same people who had once persuaded, funded, aided
and supported him in attacking and invading the new-born Iran of post-revolution
days.
-
- The expansionistic ambitions of the beloved puppet of
the White House who was granted the honorary citizenship of Detroit as
a reward for his unconditional subservience to the United States, transpired
to be a deadly pandemic which claimed the lives of more than 400,000 innocent
Iranians who witnessed the most breathtaking years the country had experienced
contemporarily.
-
- With the intention of revitalizing the forgotten pan-Arabist
sentiments of the 1950s, confronting an emerging Shiite power in the Persian
Gulf region and taking over some of the strategic parts of Iran including
the Arab-speaking province of Khuzestan and the triple islands of Abu Musa,
Lesser Tunb and Greater Tunb which were handed over to Iran 9 years earlier
in a trilateral agreement between Iran, the protectorate of Ras Al-Khaimah
and the representatives of British forces in the Persian Gulf, Saddam Hussein
unilaterally nullified the 1975 Algiers Agreement in 1980 and attacked
Iran.
-
- At that time, he was enormously supported by the United
States and its European allies who had seen the post-revolutionary Iran
an ideological threat to their liberal democratic values and feared of
the growing embrace of Islam by the international community that was inspired
and attracted by the charisma of Iran's revolutionary leader, Imam Khomeini.
-
- Following the victory of 1979 Islamic Revolution which
put an end to the era of U.S.-backed monarchy in Iran, White House frantically
realized that it had lost its stooge in the Middle East, so it should have
replaced Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi with an ambitious leader whose greed
for power could serve the interests of Washington in the region. Consequently,
the United States backed Saddam Hussein in bringing down President Ahmed
Hassan al-Bakr, as it had done the same in coup against Abd al-Karim Qasim
by entrusting Hussein the mission to assassinate the Iraqi Prime Minister.
The assassination plan was designed with the cooperation of the CIA and
Egyptian intelligence. Although the 22-year-old Saddam failed to kill the
Prime Minister on October 7, 1959, he was killed in a February 1963 Baath
Party coup.
-
- In the case of confrontation with Iran, Washington did
not spare any effort to support the Iraqi dictator who was armed by the
United States to the teeth. In order to strengthen Saddam Hussein in war
with Iran which started in 1980, the U.S. State Department first removed
the name of Iraq from its list of state sponsors of international terrorism
in February 1982.
-
- From this point onward, United States took several steps
to normalize its already strained relations with Iraq. One of these steps
was pressuring the Export-Import Bank of the United States to provide Iraq
with financing, enhancing its credit standing and enabling Baqdad to obtain
loans from other international financial institutions.
-
- Although the United States had publicly promulgated that
it would take neither sides in the Iran Iraq war, it was revealed
later that Saddam Hussein pulled the first trigger with the direct support
and encouragement of the United States. United States officially announced
the normalization of its ties with Iraq in November 1984, the fourth year
of Iran Iraq war, while the U.S. had previously begun providing Iraq
with military support and intelligence training in accordance with the
directives personally issued by President Ronald Reagan, pursuant to his
March 1982 National Security Study Memorandum in which a revision of U.S.
Middle East policies was sought.
-
- In the summer of 1983, Iran lodged a set of complaints
against Iraq to the United Nations, informing the international body of
Iraq's employment of chemical weapons against the Iranian civilians in
violation of Geneva Convention. Influenced by the United States and its
European allies, the United Nations did not heed the calls, but the secret
documents of the U.S. Department of State confirmed Iran's allegations
against Iraq. Intelligence documents revealed that Iraq had used chemical
weapons against Iranian forces and Kurdish insurgents as well.
-
- In a U.S. Department of State Information Memorandum
dated November 1, 1983 signed by the United States Navy Admiral addressed
to the Secretary of State, it was clearly stated that Iraq used chemical
weapons against Iranians: "we also know that Iraq has acquired a Chemical
Weapon production capability, primarily from Western firms, including possibly
a U.S. foreign subsidiary."
-
- Another U.S. Department of State unclassified document,
an Action Memorandum signed by Jonathan T. Howe and Richard W. Murphy,
the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South
Asian Affairs, addressed to the Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger,
shows that the two high-ranking U.S. officials demand a serious and immediate
action on the side of State Department with regards to the possibility
of Iran's complaint being raised in the United Nations and the Security
Council. They confirm that some of the European firms are selling Chemical
Weapons to Iraq and this issue should be discussed with the European governments:
"In October (1983) Iran accused Iraq of using CW and on November 8,
it required the UNSYG to investigate. Iran also stated it would soon submit
a report providing information and evidence on Iraqi CW use, but has not
yet done so. We do not know whether or when this issue will develop further
at the UN. It is important to make our approach to the Iraqis on this issue
as early as possible, in order to deter further Iraqi use of CW, as well
as to avoid unpleasantly surprising Iraq through public positions we may
have to take on this issue."
-
- The extent of U.S. support for Iraq during the war was
so broad that needs an all-encompassing investigative research to be explained.
On May 25, 1994, the U.S. Senate Banking Committee published a report in
which it was stated that "pathogenic (disease producing), toxigenic
(poisonous), and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq
pursuant to application and licensing by the U.S. Department of Commerce."
-
- The Iraqgate scandal revealed that an Atlanta-based branch
of Italy's largest bank, Banca Nazionale del Lavoro, which was predominantly
reliant on the United States for its funding and budget, transferred over
US$ 5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989.
-
- As said by the German newspaper "Die Tageszeitung",
more than 150 foreign companies, including American firms, supported Saddam's
Weapons of Mass Destruction program during the 8-year war with Iran. Saudi
Arabia dispatched hundreds of U.S.-manufactured Mark 84 general purpose
bombs which entered the global service since Vietnam War.
-
- President Reagan assigned Donald Rumsfeld as his special
emissary to Saddam and conveyed to him America's willingness and decisiveness
in supporting Iraq in war with Iran. In a nutshell, the United States and
its cronies all around the world came together to support Saddam and defeat
the independent Iran which was defiantly resisting the arrogant powers.
-
- Now, 20 years have gone since those bitter days and Iran
is marking the conclusion of 8-year war with Iraq from September 22 for
one week. This week is named the Week of Holy Defense in honor of the magnanimous,
righteous and praiseworthy resistance of Iranians against a congregation
of bullying powers who supported a bullying dictator to dissolve the manifestation
of Iranian nation's will. Iranians defended themselves nobly and their
moral resistance against the coalition of global tyrants deserves to be
called a holy defense.
|
