You need a history lesson.
++You need a history lesson.++
The Reagan administration sent "special ambassador" Donald Rumsfeld to meet with Saddam to improved relations with Iraq in 1983 and 1984. It dropped Iraq from the list of nations sponsoring terror, renewed diplomatic ties, and provided intelligence and aid to Iraq to prevent its defeat by Iran.
The U.S. tried to build up Saddam Hussein as the new western strongman in the Gulf. In 1988 and 1989 , the U.S. government approved licenses to U.S. firms to sell biological products to the Iraqi Atomic Energy Agency and electronics equipment to Iraqi missile-producing plants. Other Western allies, like Britain and France, also helped to arm Saddam.
But when Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait in 1990 that relationship ended. If you remember at the time Saddam said he believed that he has US permission to do that .
We have a history of doing what we think is in the US best interest and having it explode in our face ( Castro another example)