This page was last updated on February 9, 2012.
Nothing new; Wilfred M. Henderson; Beaver County Times; February 8, 2012.
This is the first letter I recall seeing from Mr. Henderson.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“All that is was and will be, there is nothing new under the sun.
“Currently, we are all in a lather about oil price and the effect on gasoline prices and the inevitable rise in the cost of living.
“I stated nothing is new. In the past century, King Oil dominated, and still dominates, in deciding economic issues and foreign policy.
“American politics is still primarily influenced by both foreign and domestic oil output. Again, nothing new, governments have been financed and overthrown depending on how much some of these countries had and the need of the industrialized nations for their oil.
“We have already warred in Iraq because Saddam Hussein fell out of favor with the West when not long ago he was bolstered by our government when his nation was at war with Iran. When the Shah of Iran lost his throne and no longer could purchase war toys from the U.S. in exchange for oil, our government supported Hussein to be our champion in putting Iran in its place.”
[RWC] I didn’t find any single source I had complete confidence in, but from what I pieced together U.S. support for Iraq was minimal and after about eight years neither Iran nor Iraq won. Some people claim the U.S. provided Iraq with weapons but that claim appeared to be incorrect when I last checked in 2006. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) reported the only “arms” the U.S. sold to Saddam’s Iraq were civilian helicopters eventually “taken over by [the] Air Force.” If we had armed Iraq during the Iran/Iraq War, would that have differed from FDR making Joseph Stalin an ally during World War II? The “enemy of my enemy is my friend” strategy is always open to criticism.
If we were such good supporters of Iraq, they had a funny way of showing their appreciation. In 1987, an Iraqi fighter jet launched a missile attack on the USS Stark, killing 37 sailors and injuring another 21.
Mr. Henderson claims our involvement was because “the Shah of Iran lost his throne and no longer could purchase war toys from the U.S. in exchange for oil.” Apparently Mr. Henderson doesn’t believe the Iranian storming and takeover of our Tehran embassy and the holding of 50+ Americans hostage for 444 days had any impact on the decision process.
“I wish we as a nation would remember getting into lines in the early 1970s to buy gasoline. Former President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger were behind that mess.”
[RWC] As a reminder, the 1973/1974 oil embargo was in response to the U.S. supporting Israel, an ally, during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, started when Arab countries attacked Israel on Yom Kippur. You’ll note Mr. Henderson failed to note we also had gas lines again in 1979 during the Carter administration.
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