Inspired by The Snarky Cat’s review of Bush’s current freedom-inspiring policies, the hateful and mean spirited people at Sadly, No! decided to take another look at President Reagan’s policies, especially given some of the nonsense we’d found in the Ronald Reagan dime bill (I got my dime set on you.)

Straight from the Sadly, No! archives, we present: The Best of Ronald, Donald, and Saddam:

August 13, 1990:

”He made it clear that Iraq was not interested in making mischief in the world,” said Donald Rumsfeld, a former Defense Secretary who, as a Middle East envoy, reopened discussions with Mr. Hussein in 1983. ”It struck us as useful to have a relationship, given that we were interested in solving the Mideast problems.”

October 13, 1984:

The United States and Iraq have so- called interests sections in each other’s capitals instead of formal embassies. There has also been an exchange of high-level visitors. Donald H. Rumsfeld, when he was President Reagan’s special Middle East envoy, visited Baghdad, as did Richard W. Murphy, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs. Secretary of State George P. Shultz met in New York last week with Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Foreign Minister.

March 11, 1984:

President Reagan’s statement that an Iraqi defeat would not be in American interest and his suggestion that the United States would take military action if Iran attempted to close the Strait of Hormuz made clear a diplomatic ”tilt” toward Iraq. Commodity credits totaling $840 million over two years were a significant mark of American sympathy for Iraq, a food-importing nation with severe foreign exchange problems.

February 17, 1984:

The recent rapproachement between the U.S. and Iraq has only underscored the Iranian rhetoric. Iranian officials attached great significance to the recent visit to Baghdad by U.S. Middle East envoy Donald Rumsfeld, and Iraqi threats issued shortly after.

January 1, 1984:

The Dec. 19-20 visit to Baghdad by special Mideast envoy Donald Rumsfeld, the highest U.S. official to visit in six years. Rumsfeld met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and brought a letter, the contents of which have not been made public, from President Reagan. … Rumsfeld is reported to have repeated a U.S. willingness to resume full relations at any time. [Emphasis added]

December 21, 1983:

Iraq and the US have recently renewed contacts at high levels, the most important being a meeting in Paris in May between Mr. Aziz and Secretary of State George Shultz. The US government has removed Iraq’s name from a list of countries alleged to support terrorism.

December 20, 1983:

In regard to Rumsfeld’s unexpected trip to Iraq, U.S. officials said he was expected to confer with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Iraq broke relations with the United States after the 1967 Middle East war, and Rumsfeld is the highest-level U.S. official to visit Baghdad since a 1976 trip by Philip C. Habib, then the undersecretary of state for political affairs.

April 10, 1983:

Both Washington and Moscow rationalized their willingness to sell the most advanced conventional weapons in their inventories to Tehran and Baghdad on the grounds that the sales would enable them to maintain influence in that potentially explosive region. Now that the explosion has come, the influence has vanished.

Juan Cole has more on the unfortunate US love affair with Saddam.