Remember something really important about Iraq and Syria.
In order for Saddam Hussein to move ANYTHING into Syria, he would have had to have cleared it with President Asaad of Syria first. Unfortunately, Syria and Iraq are NOT friends, and both regimes HATE each other, as Saddam was a bathist Sunni and Asaad is Shia.
For the record:
Ba'athist Iraq and Syria[edit]
Main articles: Ba'ath Party (Iraqi-dominated faction) and Ba'ath Party (Syrian-dominated faction)
Efforts by Syrians and Iraqis to unite Iraq and Syria into one country have existed since the creation of the modern states. Such unification efforts were to continue under the Ba'ath Party. Ironically enough, hostility between Syria and Iraq started in the 1966 when both were under Ba'athist rule. Relations improved in the early 1970s during the Yom Kippur War, but deteroriated again following Syria's acceptance of the UN sponsored ceasefire.
After the 1973 War, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad made several attempts in 1974 and 1975 to settle his differences with Iraq (arising from Syria's acceptance of UN Resolution 338 which lead to the ceasefire in the 1973 War; Iraq withdrew the expeditionary force it had sent to help Syria as a result of Syria's acceptance of the ceasefire) and establish a union between the two countries. Iraq however rejected Assad's offers and denounced him for his "readiness to make peace" with Israel. Strained relations between Iraq and Syria would continue up until 1978.[3]
By October 1978, Iraq President, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr began working closely with Assad to foil the Camp David Accords; signing in Baghdad a charter for Joint National Action which provided for the "closest form of unity ties" including "complete military unity" as well as "economic, political and cultural unification".[3]
In 1978 Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and Hafez al-Assad, had agreed to a plan and started to make treaties that would lead to the unification of Iraq and Syria. This plan was to come into effect in July 1979, however Saddam Hussein, the Deputy Secretary of the Iraqi Ba'ath Party, fearful of losing his power to Assad (who was supposed to become the deputy leader in the new union), forced al-Bakr into retirement under threat of violence.[4][5]
Unity talks did continue between Assad and Hussein after July 1979, but Assad rejected Iraqi demands for a full merger between the two states and for the immediate deployment of Iraq troops into Syria. Instead Assad, perhaps fearful of Iraqi domination and a new war with Israel, advocated a step-by-step approach. The unity talks were eventually suspended indefinitely after an alleged discovery of a Syrian plot to overthrow Saddam Hussein in November 1979.[3]
Shortly after coming to power Hussein claimed to have been informed of a plot against him, supported by the Syrians, and suspended, then later abandoned the plan for unification. In November 1979 both countries officially suspended relations with one another and withdrew their diplomatic missions. Prior to his forced retirement Bakr had expressed to Assad a desire to speed up the process of union, as he feared elements within the Iraqi Ba'ath Party were trying to kill the union plan. However the Iran-Iraq War and Assad's growing closeness with Iran effectively ended any hopes of rapprochement, and in January 1982 the borders between th two countries were closed and sealed and all trade and movement of citizens was stopped[4] [3]
Later, Syria joined the coalition that liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in the 1991 Gulf War. Up until the renewal of diplomatic ties in 2006, Iraqi leaders often accused Syria of trying to destabilize their country by allowing Sunni Arab foreign fighters to cross the border Iraq shares with Syria.
Relations with Syria have been marred by traditional rivalry for pre-eminence in Arab affairs, allegations of involvement in each other’s internal politics, and disputes over the waters of Euphrates River, oil transit fees, and stances toward Israel. Syria broke relations after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 and joined other Arab states in sending military forces to the coalition that forced Iraq out of Kuwait. Relations remained cool until Bashar al-Assad became President of Syria in 2000.
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Given this state of discourse, it would have been IMPOSSIBLE for Saddam Hussein to contract with the Syrian government to take in weapons of mass destruction. Only the foolish would believe otherwise upon suggestion by the BUSH administration.
It was an easy excuse for the BUSH supporters to claim that weapons were sent into Syria when they havent the first CLUE about Iraq/Syria relations at the time.
Sorry NEWFIE, you have the Iraq war all wrong.
TOS.
