[August]

Originally Posted by Catfish

if anyone remembers the (back then) good friend of the USA Saddam Hussein, when he was told to lead a US proxy war against Iran.

That is just not true although I think you already knew that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United...%80%93Iraq_war

Although it is widely believed in the Middle East that the United States gave Saddam Hussein a "green light" to invade Iran, available evidence suggests that this allegation is completely lacking in foundation and also improbable due to the danger it would have presented for the American hostages still held in Iran. According to Iran expert Mark G. Gasiorowski and former CIA Middle East analyst Bruce Riedel, the lack of any diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Iraq at the time would have made it difficult for the U.S. to convey any such message to Saddam's government, but if it had, "Saddam would not have listened." Former U.S. assistant secretary of state Thomas Pickering stated: "As opposed to 1990, there was no April Glaspie moment—there was no clear indication we know of from a reliable source that Saddam might have interpreted as a green light ... if there was such a moment, we should ask why the Iraqis didn't come forward and say 'Carter made us do it.'"Moreover, in 1979, CIA official George Cave led a mission to warn Iranian officials about U.S. intelligence regarding Iraq's preparation for an invasion. Although there is some evidence that Brzezinski may have seen the outbreak of the war as a pretext to justify increased U.S. involvement in the region, Gary Sick cites a declassified memo from Brzeinski to Carter that "argued for 'Iran's survival' and held out the possibility of secret negotiations with Tehran" as disproving "the unfortunate conventional wisdom that Brzezinski promoted the Iraqi invasion." Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani explained his view on the matter in 2008: "I have said before that I do not believe that America directly played a role in starting the war. I don't believe any sane person could possibly subscribe to this view. Rather, I believe that America was happy with the outbreak of war against Iran, and perhaps even played an indirect role in bringing it about." In sum, "The United States did not give a 'green light' to Saddam Hussein to attack Iran, contrary to prevailing opinion in Iran and throughout the Middle East. The United States and other permanent members of the UN Security Council, did, however, implicitly ratify the attack after the fact by refusing to condemn the Iraqis".