Saddam Hussein paid $25,000 to the families of any suicide bomber who killed an Israeli, and harbored a notorious “A-List” terrorist right there in Bagdad.
Don’t get me wrong. Saddam was a very bad guy. And the Shah was an autocrat.
But the Shah keep the Islamic radicals in his country under control.
And after the Shah fell, Saddam provided a counterbalance to mullah-ruled Iran.
That counterbalance is now gone.
The whole region would have been better off had we not interfered.