[CalChris]

> The US and Iraq were most decidedly not allies then.

Actually, the US and Iraq were allies until Iraq invaded Kuwait. Ambassador April Glaspie.

  We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as
  your dispute with Kuwait. Secretary Baker has directed me
  to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the
  1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with
  America.

The Iraqis even sent an Exocet missile into the USS Stark and other than bombing one of their oil platforms, Reagan turned the other cheek.

Until after the Kuwait invasion and until after Thatcher lent H some of her testicles, yeah, Reagan and Bush were Iraqi allies.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Saddam_r...