---
title: "You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too, you know. During t… — Bill Hicks Quote #7 | QuotesBy.net"
description: "You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too, you know. During the Persian Gulf war, those intelligence reports would come out: 'Iraq: incredibl… — a quote by Bill Hicks."
image: "https://quotesby.net/wp-content/themes/quotesby-editorial/assets/og-default.png"
---

> # You know we armed Iraq. I wondered about that too, you know. During the Persian Gulf war, those intelligence reports would come out: 'Iraq: incredible weapons - incredible weapons.' 'How do you know that?' 'Uh, well : we looked at the receipts.'

[Bill Hicks](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks)\#7

[War](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/war/)[History](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/history/)[Foreign policy](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/foreign-policy/)[Geopolitics](https://quotesby.net/topics/geopolitics/)[Weapons](https://quotesby.net/topics/weapons/)

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## About this quote

What does it mean?Hicks points out the irony that the US armed Iraq during the Gulf War while reporting on their weapon capacity.In plain termsWe gave weapons to Iraq and then got surprised when they used them.What can you take from it?Short-term strategic alliances can create long-term enemies.

### Where it applies

- history
- policy review
- debate

### Putting it to work

- critiquing foreign interventions
- demanding accountability

### Questions to consider

- Who is truly responsible for weapon proliferation?
- What should we learn from past conflicts?

### Another view

Foreign policy often requires complex decisions that look bad in hindsight.

## More from Bill Hicks

1. > How dare you have a wino tell me not to use drugs?

[Permalink to quote \#6](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/6/ "Permalink to quote 6")
2. > I'm so sick of arming the world and then sending troops over to destroy the fucking arms, you know what I mean? We keep arming these little countries, then we …

[Permalink to quote \#8](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/8/ "Permalink to quote 8")
3. > One of my big fears in life is that I'm gonna die, you know, and my parents are gonna come to clean out my apartment, find that porno wing I've been adding ont…

[Permalink to quote \#5](https://quotesby.net/Bill-Hicks/5/ "Permalink to quote 5")

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