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Sinister irony

DECLASSIFIED U.S. DOCUMENTS have revealed the extent to which Washington did not merely look away but actually provided intelligence and logistical support to Iraq at a time when it was giving shelter to wanted terrorists and using weapons of mass destruction (WMD). These revelations strike a grimly ironic note in a context wherein the U.S. is threatening military action against Iraq and its President, Saddam Hussein, supposedly to achieve the laudable objectives of extending the war against terrorism to "rogue states" and of eradicating Baghdad's WMD programme. The documents show that Washington's involvement with Iraq, when it was at war with Iran from 1980 to 1989 and before it invaded Kuwait in 1990, included the facilitation of Baghdad's acquisition of chemical and biological pre-cursors (the ingredients with which weapons of these descriptions can be made). At present, as it had done throughout the 1990s, Washington insists on interdicting Iraqi imports that can be used for military as well as civilian purposes even when the primary use to which that material can be put is a humanitarian one. In contrast, in the 1980s, successive U.S. administrations authorised the sale of numerous items that had such dual uses including toxic chemicals and deadly viruses such as anthrax and bubonic plague. The U.S. decision to extend support to Baghdad, which eventually included the restoration of full diplomatic relations, was taken despite authentic reports that Iraqi troops were resorting to chemical weapons on an almost daily basis against Iranian soldiers. Neither did Washington stop extending support after it had learnt that Baghdad had used chemical weapons against villages sheltering rebel Kurds although today the U.S. administration cites these very incidents as proof that Mr. Hussein and his regime are a menace to the Iraqi people as well as to the global community.

These documents are of great relevance in the present context not because they expose U.S. hypocrisy but because they underline the degree to which considerations of realpolitik really drive Washington's foreign policy. The decision to extend support to Baghdad — taken despite some misgivings — was made because Iraq seemed to be losing the war against Iran. The intelligence which the U.S. provided about the massing of Iranian troops and the cluster bombs made available through third parties were of substantial assistance to Iraq in its blunting of several military thrusts. At the time, Washington was determined to ensure that revolutionary Iran did not cut into the Shia-dominated southern portions of Iraq and thus be in a position to threaten U.S. allies such as Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states. Today, of course, the situation is quite the reverse with the Islamic revolution having lost its steam in Iran and with Iraq perceived as posing the main threat to Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf region. Given that Baghdad's WMD potential has been largely eliminated and that the U.S. has not been able to prove its allegation that Iraq sponsors global terror, it is necessary to accurately discern the real considerations that are driving Washington's current aggressive policy. The re-making of West Asia might be too ambitious even for the hyper-power to adopt as its policy goal but the reasons that have been cited in support of the policy do not make sufficient sense when matched against Washington's record.

One theory that is being put out is that the U.S. has changed so much after the terror strikes of September 2001 that the administration feels impelled to pre-empt all sources of threat. Since Iraq appears to pose neither a WMD nor a terrorist threat against the U.S. but is being targeted even as some other countries that appear to do so are being conveniently ignored, another question that can be asked is whether a mood of militarism, boosted by success in the Afghan war, has gripped sections of the Washington establishment.

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