In March, 1988, during the Iran-Iraq War, thousands of people were killed in a chemical attack on Halabja, a remote town in Iraqi Kurdistan. In the aftermath of the horror, confusion reigned over who had carried out the attack, each side accusing the other in the ongoing bloodbath of the war. As the fog lifted, the responsibility of Saddam Hussein's regime was revealed, and with it the tacit support of Iraqi's Western allies. This book, by a veteran observer of the Middle East tells the story of the gassing of Halalbja. It shows how Iraq was able to develop ever more sophisticated chemical weapons and to target Iranian soldiers and Kurdish villagers as America looked the other way. Today, as Iraq disintegrates and the Middle East sinks further into turmoil, these policies are coming back to haunt America and the West.

Introduction: The Halabja controversy -- 1. Crossing the chemical threshold -- 2. Setting the volume control -- 3. Chemical interlude -- 4. War in Kurdistan -- 5. Halabja -- 6. The Halabja demonstration effect -- 7. Iran and the use of gas -- 8. Fixing the evidence -- 9. The road to Kuwait -- Conclusion: Fall-out -- Epilogue.