Reply to pdq
Its true that the USSR was an important supplier of weapons and military equipment to Saddam's Iraq during the first Gulf War in which a million Iraqis and Iranians were killed or wounded.
It is equally true that the USA and the UK were important funders,supporters and suppliers of military hardware to Saddam.

Thatcher's govt gave him a billion pounds [yes one billion pounds ] of war credits so that he could buy British arms,weapons and military equipment.He got the weapons but defaulted on the bill which meant that the UK taxpayer funded those weapons directly as the bills were guranteed by the govt.

The USA supported Saddam with weapons,equipment,machine tools ,military intelligence and massive sums of money.The USA even shot down a civil Iranian passenger plane in the closing stages of the war killing all on board. The USA protected Iraqi shipping during the tanker war in 1889 and generally tilted its political and military might in favour of Saddam.
pdq ...dont you know it was the CIA and the USA which helped Saddam's Baathists take power ......THE usa should stop its slaughtering of innocents in the Middle East ...but it wont because of the oil at stake.
Ifor