Simon Robbins wrote:

If by the pinnacle of his brutality you mean his extermination of thousand
of Kurds with chemical weapons then the US was certainly still supporting
him at the time. Concern was certainly expressed within intelligence and

"Support" is an excessive description of the relationship.

The US was attempting to get along with Saddam during the Iran-Iraq war.
The US didn't like Iran because of the hostage situation in 1980. The
attempt to make an "ally" of him failed.

So as of spring of this year, the US had tried to befriend Saddam and tried
to contain Saddam. Largely to no effect, or very limited effect.

The US no more "supported" Saddam than just about any other major country
of the world. The difference is, the US stopped while much of the rest of
the industrialized world continued in its business/military relations with
the despot.


SMH