Back in the late 70\'s, Iran\'s gov\'t was overthrown by the Ayatollah Khomeini and his religious followers shook the Arab nations. Just about every Arab nation had groups of religious militants looking for that one leader and Saddam was having none of it. The majority of Iraqis were Shi\'ite Muslims...the same as Khomeini.
Saddam took a preemptive strike against Iran when he realized that this religious movement had the potential to spread to his country and to the rest of the Arab nations. He took it upon himself to be the front line against these "radicals". With the help of the US (Rumsfeld paid a visit to Saddam), Germans and French, Saddam not only used their weapons but also their chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers.
However, Iran outnumbered Iraq by 3 to 1 and despite their heavy losses, began to move into Kurdish territory in Iraq. And that\'s when Saddam gassed that Kurdish town...killing Kurdish women and children. Iranian military used this massacre as an advantage and brought in Western journalists to show the world.
This pretty much put a stop of war supplies to Iraq and soon, Iran and Iraq made peace after an 8 year war.
However, Saddam was deep in military debt and needed more income and still keep his military without cutting cost. Solution? Kuwait.
And you know the rest of the story. I guess my point here is : you never know when the country you\'re helping will later end up as your enemy. The Arab Nations along with the Western Nations were scared of the possible religious domino affect that the Ayatolla Khomeini could have caused. However, in helping Saddam, they helped a future enemy.
Have a nice day.
