Iraq's suppliers

edit

The U.S. did indeed support Iraq in the 1980s, but not to the extent that one would be led to believe. Here are the relevant statistics:

Conventional weapons

edit

Top 11 nations ranked by volume of major conventional weapons exports to Iraq, 1980-1988 (1990 prices, in millions of USD). Source: [1]

  1. Soviet Union: $15902, 49.6%
  2. China: $ 5169, 16.1%
  3. France: $ 4827, 15.1%
  4. Czechoslovakia: $ 1495, 4.6%
  5. Poland: $ 1408, 4.4%
  6. Brazil: $ 698, 2.2%
  7. Egypt: $ 521, 1.6%
  8. Romania: $ 514, 1.6%
  9. Denmark: $ 226, 0.7%
  10. Libya: $ 200, 0.6%
  11. United States: $ 200, 0.6%
  12. Others: $ 887, 2.9%

Total: $32047, 100.0%

Chemical weapons precursors

edit

Nations ranked in order of chemical weapons precursors exported to Iraq (to 1990), figures in tons (source: [2]):

  1. Singapore: 4515, 25.7%
  2. Netherlands: 4261, 24.2%
  3. Egypt: 2400, 13.6%
  4. India: 2343, 13.3%
  5. Germany: 1027, 5.8%
  6. Luxembourg: 650, 3.7%
  7. United States: >300, 1.7-2.3%
  8. Brazil 100, 0.6
  9. Others 1906-2006, 11.4 or 10.8%

Total: 17602, 100%

Missile/Nuclear

edit

It is difficult to assess this in rank, but the Wisconsin Project has a “Share of Responsibility” Pie Chart. Here are the ranks showing # of deals and rank (source: [3]):

  1. Germany: 102, 50%
  2. Switzerland: 22, 8%
  3. Italy: 13, 5%
  4. France: 6, 5%
  5. Brazil 14, 4%
  6. United Kingdom: 20, 3.5%
  7. United States: 25, 3.5%
  8. Other: 38, 21%

Total: 240, 100%

Credits

edit

I have a source for Iraq’s 2004 debt but I don’t know how much credit, if any, were given to post-Gulf War Iraq. Here’s the ranking, though. Figures are in millions (source:[4], [5], [6]):

  1. Saudi Arabia: $ 30850, 28.5%
  2. Japan: $ 8229, 7.6%
  3. Kuwait: $ 8180, 7.6%
  4. UAE: $ 8000, 7.4%
  5. Russia: $ 6900, 6.4%
  6. France: $ 6402, 5.9%
  7. China: $ 5800, 5.4%
  8. United States: $ 4408, 4.1%
  9. Italy: $ 3537, 3.3%
  10. Romania: $ 2507, 2.3%
  11. United Kingdom: $ 1865, 1.7%
  12. Other: $ 21526, 19.8%

Total: $108204, 100%

Even if we only take into account Iraq's $35 billion debt to Westerners after the Iran-Iraq War, U.S. % would be 12.6%. Taking into account an additional $30 billion minimum credited from the Gulf during that time, U.S. % would be only 6.8%.

Iraq 1991-2003

edit

UNSCOM official site UNMOVIC

UNSCR 687

ISG report

Intelligence Failure