Yes, we had some agreements with Iraq during the 1980s. That in and of itself isn't anything new. Japan was an ally during WWI and the Soviet Union was a strong ally during WWII. Alliances come and go as needs dictate.

Now, who really armed Iraq? Well, looking at their Air Force, the answer is France and Russia.

Following Desert Storm, the Iraqi Air Force was estimated to include:



15 MiG-29 ground-attack aircraft
30 Mirage F1 ground-attack aircraft
50 MiG-23 multi-role fighters
20 Su-25 ground-attack aircraft
30 Su-20/-22 ground-attack aircraft
7 Tu-16 and B-6D bombers
10 Tu-22 supersonic bombers



None of those planes are American made and Iraq had the money to pay for them without our help.

Furthermore, Iraq's army got most of its weapons from Russia.

As a result of the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq was obliged to extend its search for arms in 1981. By the time the war entered its eighth year in September 1987, Iraq had become the world's biggest single arms market. In addition to its purchases from the Soviet Union and France, Iraq sought to buy armaments from China, the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), Italy, Brazil, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Egypt, among others. The United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency estimated in 1987 that Iraq had imported about US$24 billion worth of military equipment during the period from 1981 to 1985.

Notice, it didn't list the US as a source or even a desired source.

Well, how about their Navy?:

Headquartered in Basra, the 5,000-man navy was the smallest branch of the armed forces in early 1988, and, in contrast to the Iranian navy, had played virtually no role in the war. Iraq's second naval facility at Umm Qasr took on added importance after 1980, in particular because the Shatt al Arab waterway, which leads into Basra, was the scene of extensive fighting. It was at Umm Qasr that most of the Iraqi navy's active vessels were based in early 1988. Between 1977 and 1987, Iraq purchased from the Soviet Union eight fast-attack OSA-class patrol boats--each equipped with Styx surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs). In late 1986, from Italy, Iraq obtained four Lupo class frigates, and six Wadi Assad class corvettes equipped with Otomat-2 SSMs. Although the four frigates and the six corvettes was held in Italy under an embargo imposed by the Italian government, these purchases signaled Iraq's intention to upgrade its naval power.

As for People worried about the effects that a war will have on a hapless civilian population, and people who are concerned that the march to the battlefield has been too hasty are not enablers.

I do wish some of the same people would be just as concerned with the several hundred thousand innocent Iraqi civilians that have died because of Saddam. Will some innocent civilians die in Iraq? Sad to say, the answer is yes. Have they been dying in large numbers already? Most definitely yes.

As for the "rush to war", this has been building for almost a year. That's a pretty slow "rush".