> > So was the U.S. right to support Saddam from 1959-1990?
>
> Remember the cold war? U.S. proxy Iran vs. Soviet proxy Iraq? U.S. fear
> of Arab socialism? The U.S. viewed Ba'ath regimes as enemies.... But
> "support"? In more than a the-enemy-of-my-big-enemy-has-a-few-
> friendlike-qualities?
Yes. It's easy to forget now, but one of the goals of the supporting Saddam was precisely to end its special relationship with Russia and (in part as a consequence) to end its hardlinism towards Israel. And in the brief period between the end of the Iran/Iraq war and the invasion of Kuwait, we actually thought we'd succeeded.
And when our battleships and planes went into the gulf to attack Iran directly during the "tanker war," that was more than "support" in quotes. That's fighting by someone's side.
Michael