"Ask Kuwait if he was "contained" . ."
I think you need to revise your Iraq chronology some.
The US and the UK had no wish to "contain" Saddam in the 80s and assisted him in his "plan" as you call it with their supplies of some rather nasty things. He was free to do what he wanted then and the invasion of Kuwait was the cullmination of that.
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US SUPPLIES
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"The CDC [Center for Disease Control] and a biological-sample company, the American Type Culture Collection, sent strains of all the germs Iraq used to make weapons, including anthrax, the bacteria that make botulinum toxin, and the germs that cause gas gangrene, the records show. Iraq also got samples of other deadly pathogens, including West Nile virus.
The transfers came in the 1980s, when the United States backed Iraq in its war against Iran. They were detailed in a 1994 Senate Banking Committee report and a 1995 follow-up letter from the CDC to the Senate."
Iraq got germs for weapons program from U.S. in '80s
The CDC and a biological-sample firm sent strains of anthrax and more, government records show.
By Matt Kelley
Associated Press
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/nation/4185241.htm.
"The US provided less conventional military equipment than British or German companies but it did allow the export of biological agents, including anthrax; vital ingredients for chemical weapons; and cluster bombs sold by a CIA front organisation in Chile, the report says.
A 1994 congressional inquiry also found that dozens of biological
agents, including various strains of anthrax, had been shipped to Iraq by US companies, under licence from the commerce department.
Furthermore, in 1988, the Dow Chemical company sold $1.5m-worth (£930,000) of pesticides to Iraq despite suspicions they would be used for chemical warfare."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,866942,00.html
"We found that pathogenic, which means disease-producing items, and toxigenic, meaning poisonous items, and other hazardous materials were exported from the United States to Iraq following a licensing and application procedure actually set forth by our own United States Department of Commerce.
That meant our own Government had to approve the shipment of these materials and obviously did so - approving the shipment of these items to Iraq before the war started.
Now, we further learned by talking to the suppliers that these
exported biological materials were not weakened when they were shipped over there. In other words, many were full pathogens capable of being reproduced by Iraq once they got there. Between the years of 1985 and 1989, the United States Government approved the sales of quantities of potentially lethal biological agents that could have been cultured and grown in very large quantities in an Iraqi biological warfare
program."
Congressional Record (Senate) February 9, 1994
Mr Riegle - U.S. Senator Chair, Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Washington, DC
http://www.svsu.edu/~boles/index/iraq/ussuppliesiraqgas.htm
"When United Nations weapons inspectors were allowed into Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, they compiled long lists of chemicals, missile components, and computers from American suppliers, including such household names as Union Carbide and Honeywell, which were being used for military purposes.
A 1994 investigation by the Senate Banking Committee turned up dozens of biological agents shipped to Iraq during the mid-'80s under license from the Commerce Department, including various strains of anthrax, subsequently identified by the Pentagon as a key component of the Iraqi biological warfare program. The Commerce Department also approved the export of insecticides to Iraq, despite widespread suspicions that they were being used for chemical warfare.
Although U.S. export controls to Iraq were tightened up in the late
1980s, there were still many loopholes. In December 1988, Dow Chemical sold $1.5 million of pesticides to Iraq, despite U.S. government concerns that they could be used as chemical warfare agents. An Export-Import Bank official reported in a memorandum that he could find "no reason" to stop the sale, despite evidence that the pesticides were "highly toxic" to humans and would cause death "from asphyxiation."
U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup
Trade in Chemical Arms Allowed Despite Their Use on Iranians, Kurds
By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 30, 2002
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/w...e&node=&contentId=A52241-2002Dec29¬Found=true
"Fresh details about how America helped to supply Iraq with weapons during the 1980s have emerged with the release of declassified documents from the period."
America helped Iraq to acquire chemical weapons
By Toby Harnden
Daily Telegraph 31/12/2002
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/12/31/wirq31.xml
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Anyway, some "plan": put in 30 odd years of loyal service for the US, then get greedy (or complacent) and then sit around in a shattered country with no armed forces worth speaking of, periodically getting bombed by your former bosses. What an inspiration to dictators everywhere.
Bet he dearly missed the Rummie "Saddam, I f@*kin` love ya man!" days of the 80s.