mmarsh
Active member
Phoenix
Exactly what Ted said (Bravo Ted).
I'm not defending the French for what they did, my point is the old saying "those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". Its very hypocritical for the US to critize France (or anyone else) for selling weapons when the USA remains the #1 arms exporter for the last decade (France is #5). The USA sold weapons to Saddam as well as did the French, Germans, Dutch Russians and Chinese.
For the record. The French sold 133 F-1 Mirages (back in the 1970s, mind you, when Iraq was a friend and Iran was not). They also 'lent' 5 SuperEtendard for the tanker war, but Saddam never bought any. So the Mirage F-1, the Exocet, the Roland I SAM, and the Gazelle helicopter. That is what Saddam bought from France. Everything else, (about 80-90%) was of mostly Russian design.
You are also wrong on the Chemicals. Nobody knew where Saddam got those chemicals from for several years. The sale was secret by the Reagan administration and it went through a dutch middleman (now in jail). It took a congressional investigation in the 1990's to figure out where Saddam got them from. Do you really think any country is going to admit selling WMD? Please.
Gladius
Remember what I said about America being hypocritical, you just proved it.
France has its faults like any other nation, some of them serious. But take my word as somebody who has lived at length in both countries (8 in France, 28 in the USA). As a society, nobody, I repeat nobody, is more obsessed about money than in the USA. Money right now is the 'raison d'etre' in America. More than anything else, our greed is our greatest weakness and it will lead to our downfall.
You can quote me on that.
Exactly what Ted said (Bravo Ted).
I'm not defending the French for what they did, my point is the old saying "those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones". Its very hypocritical for the US to critize France (or anyone else) for selling weapons when the USA remains the #1 arms exporter for the last decade (France is #5). The USA sold weapons to Saddam as well as did the French, Germans, Dutch Russians and Chinese.
For the record. The French sold 133 F-1 Mirages (back in the 1970s, mind you, when Iraq was a friend and Iran was not). They also 'lent' 5 SuperEtendard for the tanker war, but Saddam never bought any. So the Mirage F-1, the Exocet, the Roland I SAM, and the Gazelle helicopter. That is what Saddam bought from France. Everything else, (about 80-90%) was of mostly Russian design.
You are also wrong on the Chemicals. Nobody knew where Saddam got those chemicals from for several years. The sale was secret by the Reagan administration and it went through a dutch middleman (now in jail). It took a congressional investigation in the 1990's to figure out where Saddam got them from. Do you really think any country is going to admit selling WMD? Please.
Gladius
Remember what I said about America being hypocritical, you just proved it.
France has its faults like any other nation, some of them serious. But take my word as somebody who has lived at length in both countries (8 in France, 28 in the USA). As a society, nobody, I repeat nobody, is more obsessed about money than in the USA. Money right now is the 'raison d'etre' in America. More than anything else, our greed is our greatest weakness and it will lead to our downfall.
You can quote me on that.