Why do you never provide attribution for your quotes, pdq?

Saddam's personal motivations for his involvement in the Iran/Iraq war are irrelevant. The fact that his own motives coincided with the motives of the US government (up to a point), is the reason he received so much help from the US government in carrying them out. Had the US not seen Saddam as a useful tool for carrying out its own agenda, Saddam would never even held his position of power in the first place.