Why the West once supported the tyrant: "Saddam was indeed once courted by the West, at a time when the real menace in the Middle East was seen to be the fundamentalist ayatollah regime in Iran.
The ayatollahs preached holy war against the Great Satan, the United States, and openly sponsored anti-American terrorism.
Saddam, at that time, seemed a desirable ally. He was fervently anti-Iranian in his foreign policies. In his domestic politics he was all that any Western country sought of a Middle Eastern ruler. He was a genuine secularist, dedicated to keeping Islamic clerics safely in their mosques. He encouraged the education of his population, the emancipation of women and the economic development of his country and spent his vast oil revenues to achieve such ends. He was not, at the time, obviously anti-Western."

Let's not forget that Saddam was our ally when he gassed the Iranian army and Kurds. The US government barely flinched. Our military and diplomatic support continued. To invade him for that more than a decade later raises the question: why now?
- posted by geoff @ #