Hussein was in blatant violation of several tens of U.N. directives, and should have been taken care of by the U.N.
Seeing that they are a ball-less, spine-less outfit, we did the next best thing.
Iran is also now in direct violation of U.N. sanctions.
It wasn’t spinelessness that kept the UN from acting. It was one of two things and probably both. Corruption and/or complicity.