The driveling of a bitter old man

'I was involved in the process of arming Saddam Hussein," [Michael Heseltine] '

It must be national pomposity day or something.

'The reason we armed Saddam Hussein is because he was seen as an absolutely fundamental interest of the west against rising Muslim fundamentalism based on Iran. We have destabilised Iraq, greatly empowered Iran and the dangers to us in that process have been very considerably increased'

What I want to know is, if Michael Heseltine armed Iraq, why were all his weapons made in Russia? His air force had only Migs, his armoured divisions only had T-72's and his infantrymen all had AK-47 and 74's. If Michael Heseltine spent billions of pounds arming Iraq, he didn't benefit our arms manufacturers one little bit in the process. Which makes him either a liar or an idiot. I'm going for pompous liar. There always was a grandiosity about Hezza, even when he was a minister. I think that's what killed his chances amongst his peers and why the top job always eluded him. Yup, MP's preferred John Major, which is startling but incontrovertibly true. Unfortunately, now he has lots of time to bitterly reminisce, his memory seems to be failing.

It is a matter of historical fact that the west gave enough assistance to Iraq at its worst moment in the Iran-Iraq war to ensure it didn't lose- a bit like we gave assistance to Russia in WWII for exactly the same reason. But to pretend that Iraq's substantial military might was a gift from Britain is preposterous- ask any officer who has served in Iraq whose arms we confronted (and continue to confront) on the battlefield: Russia's. Bought and paid for with Iraqi oil money throughout the 1990's.

Of course, what Hezza's driveling enables is this kind of rant:

'What his comments highlight above all, however, is the naked imperial cynicism and duplicity that has governed western policy towards the region throughout, as support has been switched on and off for whichever regime is seen to serve western interests, utterly regardless of human rights and democracy, and with disastrous and counter-productive results. '

I've asked people who tell me about us arming Saddam to name one weapons system (other than the hilarious RailGun) which Saddam was given or bought- one infantry weapon, one missile, one tank, one aircraft. Strangely, none has been able to supply an example yet...