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It is difficult to swallow the American U-turn on chemical weapons usage, since we know it was not only quite happy to stand by and see them used on Iranian soldiers, but also to continue supplying weapons and tactics in the knowledge that the Saddam Hussein regime had started gassing its own civilians. This is from the senior DIA officer at the time.
In a 1994 report, pathogenic and toxigenic materials were stated as been exported from the US to Iraq. There were 70 shipments, including of Anthrax, to Iraqi government agencies - the same chemicals recovered by UN weapons inspectors from their biological warfare programme. There are more examples of US supplies of money and chemical agents from recognised and reliable sources I can provide, but I don't think that is the issue here.
In helping Saddam Hussein fight back with dirty bombs in a war he started in the first place, the USA had, out of fear of Iran's strengthening and specifically their oil politics, created quite a monster. The 'Axis of Evil', the 'War on Terror' rings like tin.
It is perhaps understandable that these phrases not only give terrorism more significance, but also breed homegrown opinions like most Iraqis want most Americans dead. Do they?
The Program on International Policy Attitudes conducted a poll last year, which suggested most Iraqis now want US forces out very soon, most Iraqis now support attacks on US troops because they fear the US wants permant bases there (this support would halve if there was a withdrawal), but in spite of these increased figures there is no reflection of growing support for Al-Qaeda, which is rejected by almost all Shias and Kurds and most Sunnis.
Only such extremists will - hence the term - want to interpret The Qur'an as an excuse for violence upon people in countries like America and other perceived apostates. The manager of news channel Al-Arabya says not all muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists are muslims - which sounds reasonable enough. But surveys have shown that most muslims denounce actions such as the September 11th attacks, more recognising defensive jihad on their muslim neighbours.
Iraq isn't really an enemy of America - the small percentage of religious extremists yes, but most of the Iraqi people want to live and let live. Likewise most Iraqis do not want to kill Americans - just the individuals they see as becoming occupiers forever trying to clean up after what their forebears helped flourish in the first place.
You can reflect on the polled statistics and statements of fact, or you can of course draw conclusions from government propaganda and media angling.
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