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If you have a point to make about something that happened in 1975 that you believe is relevant to what’s happening with Iran today, put it out there and we’ll discuss it. Same with America’s role in the Iran-Iraq war.

I’m not hostile to the fact that the past had led us to the present. I am hostile to the notion that American foreign policy is entirely to blame for the current situation, though.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=us_iraq_80s_741&scale=2#us_iraq_80s_741

The above website gives a decent timeline with regards to our involvement with Iraq in the 1980s. It may not be all-inclusive but it's a good start.

The upshot is we started backing Iraq with at least military intelligence and possibly more. Remember that officially we were neutral about the conflict. We had armed Iran during the Shah's reign so that information was valuable to Iraq. I also believe that Saudi Arabia and Britain aided Iraq during this time.

In my opinion, we decided to help Iraq for two reasons. First we felt that a well-armed Islamic state might very well destabilize the region. Secondly I believe it was simple revenge for being humiliated by a bunch of "students" and a cleric for over 400 days. Iraq provided the perfect vehicle to "stick it" to Iran without our direct involvement.

And then there was Afghanistan...