 This is a photograph of an Iranian soldier putting on chemical protective gear in a chemical mask Anticipating a chemical weapons attack by the Iraqi military during Iran and Iraq's long war in the 1980s And I chose this photo because I recently reported a story for foreign policy magazine Showing that the United States and specifically the Central Intelligence Agency knew going back to as early as 1983 that Iraq was using these weapons on Iran But it really did nothing to warn the Iranians about it or to alert the broader international community and Fast-forwarding to the late 1980s We found evidence that the US was actually supplying the Iraqi military with tactical intelligence about Iranian troop locations Knowing that they would use chemical weapons on them And I thought that this picture just really put a human face on what that looked like or was about to look like Potentially from the other side before those weapons were ultimately used