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Originally Posted by acparker
The US did not supply Saddam Hussein with chemical or biological weapons. While he was a puppet of the USSR (from whom he acquired the bulk of his weaponry) he also acquired training and expertise in chemical and biological warfare. He had highly skilled and knowledgeable scientists who excelled in developing chemical and biological weapons. He produced most, if not all, of his chemical arsenal. Mustard agent is quite simple and relatively inexpensive to manufacture and Iraq used it in large amounts against Iran. He would essentially slime an area in the same way you would plant mines -- for area denial.
He used the nerve agent Sarin against domestic targets. From a cynical standpoint, Sarin is not persistent, therefore it makes an effective agent to remove an unwanted population without rendering the area uninhabitable.
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Orly?
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/...l-weapons.html
"With remarkable speed, Iraq built a program with equipment and precursor purchases from companies in an extraordinary array of countries, eventually including the United States, according to its confidential declarations.
German construction firms helped create a sprawling manufacturing complex in the desert south of Samarra and three plants in Falluja that made precursor ingredients for chemical weapons. The complex near Samarra, later renamed Al Muthanna State Establishment, included research labs, production lines, testing areas and storage bunkers.
Iraq produced 10 metric tons of mustard blister agent in 1981;
by 1987 its production had grown 90-fold, with late-war output aided by two American companies that provided hundreds of tons of thiodiglycol, a mustard agent precursor. Production of nerve agents also took off."
Sorry to continue the threadjack, but this kind of misinformation has to be corrected.