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" And lo, did Peggy Noonan&amp;#039;s head explode. In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq&amp;#039;s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein&amp;#039;s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent. The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq&amp;#039;s favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration&amp;#039;s long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn&amp;#039;t disclose. U.S. officials have long denied acquiescing to Iraqi chemical attacks, insisting that Hussein&amp;#039;s government never announced he was going to use the weapons. But retired Air Force Col. Rick Francona, who was a military attach\u00E9 in Baghdad during the 1988 strikes, paints a different picture. Unless this story turns out to have come from another one of Charlie Skinner&amp;#039;s sources who&amp;#039;s gone &amp;#039;round the bend, the Reagan Legacy Project just took another one below the waterline. Nice timing, too, CIA leaker-person. Well-played. It also raises the question, fairly vital now that we appear to be ready to make some war in Syria, as to whether there is anything we&amp;#039;ve done in the Middle East since we installed the shah that didn&amp;#039;t come back to bite this country in the ass in one way or another. This is a particularly horrific episode in our seven decades of abject Fail in that part of the world. Damn, we&amp;#039;re lousy at this. P.S. -- The reasons why we&amp;#039;ve been lousy at this recently can be summed up succinctly by running down the list of the names of the people who signed this letter. If these guys were a bowling team, they&amp;#039;d be rolling &amp;#039;em into the snack bar. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19352/us-helped-saddam-gas-iran-082713/>