U.S.-Iraq Relations, Part 1: Lesser Evil

Sept. 18 -- Saddam Hussein's bid to avoid a war with the United States — his decision to allow the "unconditional" return of U.N. weapons inspectors — is only the latest wrinkle in a tortured relationship that has confounded five American presidents.

Indeed, even as President Bush castigates Saddam's regime as "a grave and gathering danger," it's important to remember that the United States helped arm Iraq with the very weapons that administration officials are now citing as justification for Saddam's forcible removal from power.

The tortured relationship between the United States and Iraq has its roots in the Iranian revolution 23 years ago. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism struck fear in the hearts of Washington policymakers, according to Kenneth Pollack, a former Iraq analyst for the CIA and the National Security Council.

"There was real concern in Washington that this Islamic revolution in Iran would catch fire, and would scorch the rest of the region," Pollack said, "that the Iranians would go on a march and roll through Baghdad and into Riyadh and into the Saudi oil fields and effectively be able to corner the world's oil market."

Then, as now, oil was a driving force behind American policy on Iraq, which contains the world's second largest reserves (after Saudi Arabia) and sits at a critical position at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering many of the other most important oil-producing countries in the world.

Taking Sides with a 'Lesser Evil'

From the beginning, an American fear of disrupting that oil supply weighed heavily on a succession of U.S. presidents. In 1980, after Iraq attacked Iran, and began a war that would eventually cost one million lives, the Reagan administration made a critical calculation. In public, the United States would be officially "neutral" on the Iran-Iraq war. But secretly, the United States would tilt in favor of Iraq.

"Iraq was probably seen as the lesser of two evils," according to Iraq historian Phebe Marr. "Iraq was seen as something of a bulwark against Iran, not only in terms of Iran and Iraq, but the rest of the Gulf as well."