| After all, al Qaeda and ISIS have sporadically fought with one another, and the Saddam regime is long gone. |
| The Bush administration launched the 2003 Iraq War with a decapitation strike aimed at killing Saddam Hussein. |
| The Anglo-American forces that invaded Iraq in March 2003 did so for the purpose of deposing Saddam Hussein. |
| In 1988 Saddam Hussein used gas to slaughter thousands of men, women, and children in the Kurdish city of halabja. |
| But an uncaged tyrant like Saddam demanded a posture at once more nimble and aggressive. |
| The opposition was discredited, especially the mujahedin e Khalq, which supported Saddam and Iraq. |
