For one, The Senate Banking Committee in an investigation discovered large shipments of dual-use chemical and biological liscensed by the Commerce Dept to be exported to Iraq. This continued years after it was evident that Saddam was using these materials not just on the Iranians, but on Iraqi Kurds and others in Iraq. This is not to say the U.S. shouldn't have removed Saddam, but it's just to say that of course we knew he had these materials and weapons programs, because our government along with other gov's sold the materials to him even when we knew what he was using them for.
http://www.belleville.com/mld/newsdemocrat/5674107.htm
If Iran had conquered Iraq my mind reels with the power they would have had...in the region and ,through oil, in the world.Iran was a "friend of the USSR.The Cold War was going on.