Another bullshit 'win' like Dubya

[Ocelot II]

28. Iraq was a problem long before that.

It was a Soviet ally during the Cold War and a supporter of Palestinian militant groups at that time. Iraq invaded Iran in the early '80s following years of conflict over ideology, religion (Sunni v. Shi'a) and borders, and to prevent Iran from destabilizing the area the US provided support to Iraq and began selling them arms. The idea that Iraq still had WMDs 20 years later came from the fact that they had used them against Iranian soldiers and civilians. Complicating matters was that during the same time period Reagan administration officials were clandestinely selling arms to Iran, which was under an embargo, in order to fund the Contras in Nicaragua. Then Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990 to get out from under the huge debt it owed Kuwait on account of the war with Iran, and because Kuwait was slant-drilling into an Iraqi oil field. That led to Gulf War I, and the rest is history, as they say. But the US has been tangled up in that area's messes since WWII.