This is a simplified version of events leading up to Saddam Hussein’s death in 2006 .
The CIA placed Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath Party in power in 1963. Our politicians were complicit in the birth of this regime through an unconstitutional act of foreign aggression.
In the late 1970’s President Carter encouraged Hussein to invade Iran, hoping the secular Hussein would remove the Islamic regime there.
One consequence of this invasion, aside from hundreds of thousands of deaths, was the brutal suppression of Iraq’s non-Ba’athist political groups. US politicians didn’t protest these violations of human rights because Hussein was working for the US.
President Reagan continued Carter’s pro-Hussein policy.
George W Bush called for the people of Iraq to rise up and overthrow the dictator. That message was repeatedly broadcast across Iraq. It was also contained in millions of leaflets dropped by the U.S. Air Force. Eager to end decades of repression, the Shiites arose. Their revolt spread like wildfire; in the north, the Kurds also rose up. Key Iraqi army units joined in. It looked as if Saddam’s days were over. The likeliness of Bush’s reasons for this being down to moral humanitarian reasons is highly unlikely, but to keep this simple and avoid speculative information we go with it…
However George W Bush then panicked and blew the whistle. What he intended was a simple take down of Saddam Hussein by Iraqi rebels, a coup and a chosen leader put in his place to continue to look after US interests, this clearly was not what happened. So not only did Bush back down, he turned his back on the Iraqi people and aided Saddam to gain back control. Because of these decisions by Bush thousands of lives were lost in the power struggle.
Hussein’s army crushed the rebels while US jets flew overhead. The US had the ability to stop Hussein slaughtering thousands of rebels but ordered the military not to intervene.