Not exactly. Saddam wanted to be the Caliph. Or rather, he wanted to be Saladin.
Its useful to remember something that went down the memory hole long ago. When Zawahiri recruited Osama into his organization, he was head of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which was on Saddam’s payroll. Zawahiri and his crew then became Osama’s inner circle as they formed “Al Qaeda”. One of the things they were doing was recruit jihadists to go to Algeria where they slaughtered something like 200,000 people and tried to overthrow the government there.
So Osama’s Saddam connection was Zawahiri himself and has always hidden right out in plain sight. When you trace the first World Trade Center bombing, they trace back to Iraq. And the perp of 911 was related to the perp of the first World Trade Center bombing. Saddam had to go.
Another thing to consider: one of Saddam’s biggest internal wars was against the Kurds, of whom he slaughtered a couple hundred thousand. They are the biggest bulwark today against ISIS in the region.
Another interesting thought: maybe that’s why Obama has been so hot to intervene in Syria and overthrow Assad, which he meant to do last summer, and seems to be looking for a reason to do yet again.
In other words he wants to create an Iraq-like power vacuum in Syria for ISIS / Al Qaeda to move in, so they can take over Syria to add to their ME caliphate. The opinion at Judicial Watch is leaning in that direction. And may I also suggest that, being so sympathetic to Radical Islam, Zero has notions of being the head of the North American Caliphate, should it come to that. Perhaps he’s already pencilled in on their org charts.
Certainly the way Obama cut & run from Iraq threw open the doors to ISIS and the caliphate, as D’Souza projected in “2016”. We just didn’t see it coming in that specific form. But is that also why Obama has such a hard-on to see Assad taken down in Syria? Because Assad has also maintained a strong bulwark against Radical Islam (whom Obama characterizes as “rebels” but never specifies their cause)?
Point taken on the Kurds but IMHO that was a separate matter as far as Saddam Hussein was concerned. Either way, you’re right about them holding back ISIS in their region. They know which way the wind is blowing.