Bush’s Biggest Ally Against Iran is Who?!

Storms are gathering over Iran. The UK’s Telegraph says that in a response to America’s backing of Georgia, Russia is ready to supply weapons to Tehran.

AfterDowningStreet.org offers a much more alarmist version, saying that Moscow has vowed to complete Iran’s Bushehr Reactor within four months. President Bush has repeatedly condemed Iran for pursing nuclear weapons,
and is activly looking for a casus belli [CNBC story].

Though there is great speculation to these claims, there is a very interesting unintended consequence that has played out over the last 8 years. The world leader who would have most advocated and supported a US-led invasion of Iran is now dead: the late Saddam Hussein.

There is an extremely long history of border disputes between Iraq and Iran, that stems from Iran’s Islamic revolution influencing Iraq’s Saddam-suppressed Shia. Because of these tensions, escalations continued to rise on the border until war broke out in 1980, and lasted through 1988.

Hussein cooperated with the United States in the past in order to fight Iran. In 1982, President Reagan formalized his pro-Iraq policy by issuing a National Security Decision Directive to supply Iraq with intelligence, economic aid, and normalized relations between the two governments.

Even today, Hussein’s cooperation with America to fight Iran would have been a sure thing. His anti-Iran sentiment persisted until his end. When Hussein went to trial in December 2006, he said he would take responsibility “with honor” for any attacks on Iran, including his use of chemical weapons.

Unquestionably, Saddam Hussein was a horrible person, and by any moral compass, should have been removed from power. But the fact still remains, Saddam Hussein would have been America’s most eager ally against Iran.