I need a link, please.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

One that discusses, in depth and quite objectively, the artillery exchange that took place back in the Iran-Iraq War, where Kurds were killed by poison gas.

[neuvocat]

1. This might work:

http://www.phrusa.org/research/chemical_weapons/chemiraqgas2.html

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Thanks very.

n/t

[Maple]

3. Objective view

EDITORIAL DESK | January 31, 2003, Friday
A War Crime Or an Act of War?

By Stephen C. Pelletiere (NYT) 1128 words
Late Edition - Final , Section A , Page 29 , Column 1
ABSTRACT - Op-Ed article by Stephen C Pelletiere, senior CIA political analyst on Iraq during Iran-Iraq war, lays out facts in allegation that Saddam Hussein gassed Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in March 1988; says all that is known for certain is that Kurds were hit with poison gas that day, during battle with Iranians; explains that US Defense Intelligence Agency's report found both sides used gas during battle, and blamed Iranians for Kurdish deaths; notes Kurds died of cyanide-based gas that Iran, but not Iraq, had at time; explains that Iran sought control of key dam near Halabja, part of impressive Iraqi waterway system that is most extensive in Mideast; adds that Bush administration owes Americans full facts before going to war (M)

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60816FC3D5C0C728FDDA80894DB404482

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

4. Thanks.

n/t

[Maple]

5. I have the full

article btw, if you need it and can't get it out of the archives.

Just ping me.

[lfairban]

6. I am glad you ask.

I have been collecting links on Halabjah, probably more than you care to open:

http://home.columbus.rr.com/lfairban/Pages/Iraq.html#Halabjah

A couple of things I remember, I don't believe it was artillery, but aerial, helicopters or planes. Also, there was a Pentagon study around '91 or so that concluded that the gas was dropped by Iran, not Iraq. I don't believe that conclusion, as it was probably an attempt to vindicate Iraq by people who had an interest of some sort in normalizing relations.

Either way, as a friend of mine said, we sold them the helicopters to do it with.

The biggest problem I have to people referring to Saddam Hussein "gassing his own people" is that they omit several key points: the Kurds are not his people as he is Sunni, they are only in the same country as delineated by the British and French at the end of WWI, there was a war going on at the time between Iraq and Iran and the Kurds were allied with Iran, and the Kurds have been trying to break off a chunk of northern Iraq and southern Turkey for decades so they can have their own country. This makes them civilians associated with enemy combatants, and their deaths are not much different than all the Iraqi civilians we killed when we invaded.

[MojoKrunch]

7. Kurdistan revisited.

the Kurds have been trying to break off a chunk of northern Iraq and southern Turkey for decades so they can have their own country.
Again.

I don't know the specifics as to how they lost it, but Kurdistan used to exist in what is now eastern Turkey, northern Iraq, north eastern Syria and north western Iran.

But yea, that Freeper line of "Saddam gassed his own people" simply never rang true.

Evil dictator?
Yes.
Politically stupid?
No.

Mojo