Mideast and Germany
How can President Bush declare a curb on arms sales to the Middle East (front page, May 30) and hold only the United States, the Soviet Union, China, Great Britain and France responsible as “the major suppliers” of such weapons? How can he leave out Germany? Who built Hussein’s poison gas plants? Who modernized his Scud missiles to reach Israel and Saudi Arabia? Who supplied Iraq with the components to build the gas centrifuges needed to separate uranium-238 from uranium-235, a key step in producing weapons-grade nuclear material? Who sold Iraq mycotoxins to develop biological weapons? Who built Hussein’s bunker underneath his palace? The answer is Germany.
Germany also helped Egypt and Libya develop medium-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads. Germany helped Iran produce biological weapons, Pakistan develop an atomic bomb and India increase the destructive power of its nuclear weapons.
When will President Bush and the rest of the world community hold Germany responsible for illegal arms exports to the Middle East? Until they do, a ban on weapons to that area of the world that doesn’t include Germany will only give Germany a monopoly on such activity.
MARK LOUIS CROATTI
Los Angeles
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