Halabja's Unrecognized Pain: DW Highlights PTSD, Forgets US-UK Role in Providing Saddam's Gas
📰 THE STORY: Deutsche Welle reports that an overwhelming majority of Halabja Massacre survivors still suffer from PTSD, nearly four decades after Saddam Hussein's regime gassed the Kurdish city in March 1988. The article highlights the profound psychological and physical scars, and the lack of proper medical and psychological support for the victims in Iraq. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU:
Historical Context: While spotlighting Saddam's atrocity, the article omits the critical detail that the United States and the United Kingdom actively aided Saddam Hussein's regime throughout the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), supplying him with intelligence, dual-use chemical precursors, and biological agents. US companies, for example, shipped agents convertible to mustard gas, sarin, and VX to Iraq
right up until 1988, even after the Halabja attack. The Reagan administration deliberately prevented UN condemnation of Iraq's chemical weapons use, viewing Saddam as a bulwark against Iran. Double Standard: Western media, including DW, often highlights the brutality of dictators when aligned against Western interests (e.g., Assad in Syria, Putin in Ukraine). Yet, when those same dictators were
assets, or armed by the West (e.g., Pinochet in Chile, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Saudi royals), the complicity is whitewashed or ignored. The outrage over chemical weapons is selectively applied; it's an atrocity when used by a 'foe,' but a regrettable footnote when the perpetrators were Western clients. Follow the Money: The companies that supplied Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons program profited