[marron]

There is the claim made that, during the Cold War, we backed Iraq and the Soviet Union backed Iran.

I'm sorry, you have it reversed, sort of.

Until the fall of the shah of Iran, we backed Iran, and Saddam was a soviet client. His army was soviet trained and soviet equipped. It was still soviet armed right up until the 2003 invasion.

Where it gets complicated was after the fall of the Shah, and the rise of the Ayatollah. At that point, the Saudis became terrified that Iran would invade them. At the same time, Saddam saw a chance to take Iran's arab southwest away from them, and started a war. The Saudis funded that war, and since we were very tightly allied with Saudi Arabia, it became our policy to make sure Saddam didn't lose his war.

But we sold him no armament. We did sell "dual-use" equipment, civilian equipment that could have military applications (like trucks, engines, and so forth). Our primary contribution was intelligence, making sure Saddam always knew where the Iranian troops were massing.

But it would be a mistake to say we were Saddam's ally; we were Saudi Arabia's ally. The moment Saddam became a threat to the Saudis, we dropped him so fast his head spun. He had offered us entry into his oil industry, and we had major projects on the books when he invaded Kuwait. Which is why he didn't believe we would take sides against him. But given the choice between Saddam and the Saudis, it was no contest.

In 1991 when we fought him, his weaponry was almost 100% Soviet. In 2003, when we fought him for the second time, his weaponry was 70% Russian, 20% French, 9% miscellaneous, and 1% US.

[Nam Vet]

I remember quite well, during the Iran / Iraq War, that we recognized both of the countries as potential big trouble and were more than happy to have them busy warring with each other instead of 'expanding their horizons' , enemy wise.

Nam Vet

[madconserv]

Try this:
http://www.armchairgeneral.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-5846.html

Time Frame: Late Summer, 2003 The MiG Dig

The story involves an Iraqi jet fighter being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops. The Iraqi jet, an advanced Russian MiG-25 Foxbat, was found buried in the sand after an informant tipped off U.S. troops.

The MiG was dug out of a massive sand dune near the Al Taqqadum airfield by U.S. Air Force recovery teams. The MiG was reportedly one of over two dozen Iraqi jets buried in the sand, like hidden treasure, waiting to be recovered at a later date. Contrary to what some in the major media have reported, not all the jets found were from the Gulf War era.



The Russian-made MiG-25 Foxbat being recovered by U.S. Air Force troops in the photos is an advanced reconnaissance version never before seen in the West and is equipped with sophisticated electronic warfare devices.http://www.rb-29.net/HTML/03RelatedStories/03.09relcontinfo/relcontscans/MiG001.jpgU.S. Air Force recovery teams had to use large earth-moving equipment to uncover the MiG, which is over 70 feet long and weighs nearly 25 tons. The Foxbat is known to be one of Iraq's top jet fighters. The advanced electronic reconnaissance version found by the U.S. Air Force is currently in service with the Russian air force. The MiG is capable of flying at speeds of over 2,000 miles an hour, or three times the speed of sound, and at altitudes of over 75,000 feet.



The recovery of the advanced MiG fighter is considered to be an intelligence coup by the U.S. Air Force.. The Foxbat may also be equipped with advanced Russian- and French-made electronics that were sold to Iraq during the 1990s in violation of a U.N. ban on arms sales to Baghdad.


Does this help advance the theory of russian WMD in Iraq?