1981 Saddam Hussein's Iraqi Nuclear Complex For Use Against Israel-What Else?

     Nadene Goldfoot                                                            

The irony of it all was when the land of Iraq was a part of Mesopotamia, specifically Babylonia, it was conquered by the Arabs in 637 much to the relief of the Jews who hoped they would deliver them from the Sassanid persecution.  The Jews even helped the Arab's advance!
                                                                             

Building site of complex foundation of Osirak nuclear complex.  One can see the deep pool and dome where later the reactor was to sit.  

Little did they realize that 1,344 years  later on June 7, 1981,  the 2nd state of Israel would have to preempt the building of a weapon meant to be directed against them by launching a surprise attack to destroy the OSIRAK NUCLEAR COMPLEX of Iraq.    This was French nuclear reactor built for the Arabs near Baghdad.  "It is the world's first air strike against a nuclear plant."  
                                                     

Some F-15 interceptors and F-16 fighter bombers destroyed the Osirak reactor 18 miles south of Baghdad, on the orders of Prime Minister Menachem Begin.  The distance from Baghdad to Jerusalem is only 547 miles or 880 km air travel.  

The UN had a fit.  Israel was widely criticized for doing this.  All the critics were minimizing the importance of Iraq's nuclear program because Baghdad had signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.  They even allowed their facilities to be inspected.  Israel had baseless fears, they all said.
                                                                             

 Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2-4th, 1990 and the US said, "Hold on.  Wait a minute."  The USA let it slip that they had known about Iraq developing nuclear weapons and that it was far closer to reaching its goal than thought before.  All the critics crawled out of their walls to say that the USA was now only looking for justification for a war with Iraq.  They all were arguing with the US Administration.  The result of Iraq's invasion  "resulted in the seven-month-long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, and subsequently led to direct military intervention by US-led forces in the Gulf War and the setting alight by Iraq of 600 Kuwaiti oil wells."    This gave reason to the USA not to trust Iraq and to put them at the top of their BAD list.  They wound up invading Iraq after 9/11/01  on April 23, 2003 to May 1, 2003.  
                                                                   
After Israel's hit on the nuclear facility,  UN inspectors found Saddam's program had been developing weapons that were more extensive than even the Israelis knew about.  The experts thought that Iraq was incapable of enriching uranium for bombs, but Saddam's researchers used several methods-even one thought to be obsolete-that made it possible for Iraq to have built one bomb at least.  That's all it would take to wipe out teeny Israel of 8,000 square miles.
                                                                         

Saddam was known for his cruelty, even to his best friends.  How people could have been trusting him is beyond my comprehension.  It wasn't a surprise to me when the USA invaded Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction after 9/11.  They may or may not have picked on the right enemy, but they sure picked a doozy with Saddam.  He was not a nice man to anyone except himself.  He would be today's runner up to Hitler, no doubt.

He had given orders to hit Tel Aviv with a chemical attack in April of 1990. He had said to Yasser Arafat then, "“Iraq has chemical weapons it successfully used against the Iranians” during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, “and Iraq won’t hesitate to use them against Tel Aviv" .” Israel has gone through several of those already and has has to dole out gas masks to its whole population and give directions to make a sealed safe room for survival.
                                                                             

"Hussein did fire 39 Scud missiles armed with conventional warheads at Israel during the First Gulf War lasting from August 2, 1990 to February 28, 1991-called Operation Desert Shield.  It was a war war waged by coalition forces from 34 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.   One Israeli died.   Fears that he might use chemical warheads on the Scuds led to the Israeli authorities distributing gas masks, and ordering the populace into sealed rooms when the Scuds were heading toward Israel."

Resource:  Myths and Facts-a concise record of the Arab-Israeli conflict by  Mitchell G. Bard and Joel Himelfarb
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/7/newsid_3014000/3014623.stm
http://www.timesofisrael.com/saddam-gave-orders-to-fire-chemical-weapons-at-tel-aviv-if-he-was-toppled-in-first-gulf-war/