After the Islamic revolution and the capture of 50 American hostages, Iran became a bitter enemy of the United States. To counterbalance Iranian influence in the region, the White House turned to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. US support for Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war ignored massacres, such as widespread use of chemical weapons against both the Iranians and the Kurdish ethnic minority in Iraq, as Washington maintained its close relationship with Baghdad. But with the end of the Cold War, Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait turned his American ally into an enemy. Would the US now intervene to help the Kurds?
