When the Soviet Empire gradually collapsed between 1989 and 1991, the remaining sole superpower United States faced a new situation. The Cold War was over. What to do with the military-industrial complex? In August 1988, the eight-year long Iraq-Iran war had ended with hundreds of thousands casualties on both sides. Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s brutal dictator had been sort of an ally in taking revenge after Khomeini had humiliated the U.S. during the 444 days in 1979-1981 when the American Embassy in Tehran had been taken hostage by revolutionary students.  Well, support for the dictator in Baghdad was not confined to humanitarian help as some historians want us to believe. And it was not confined to the U.S. While poison gas was employed by Saddam to mass murder both Iranian combatants and Kurdish rebels, the West turned a blind eye to it.

Saddam’s claim to ultimate power was largely underestimated when…