In today's New York Times, Roger Morris writes of the last major regime change program held in Iraq, backed by the United States and Britain (and opposed by France and Germany) under John F Kennedy back in 1963. This "regime change" was our first introduction to the 25 year old Saddam Hussein and the Baath party, whom the CIA had chosen as its instrument in said Regime Change. I can't wait for things to go even more right this time (with many of the same people who served with Reagan in giving military aid to Saddam in the 80's).
In 1963 Britain and Israel backed American intervention in Iraq, while other United States allies — chiefly France and Germany — resisted. But without significant opposition within the government, Kennedy, like President Bush today, pressed on. In Cairo, Damascus, Tehran and Baghdad, American agents marshaled opponents of the Iraqi regime. Washington set up a base of operations in Kuwait, intercepting Iraqi communications and radioing orders to rebels. The United States armed Kurdish insurgents. The C.I.A.'s "Health Alteration Committee," as it was tactfully called, sent Kassem a monogrammed, poisoned handkerchief, though the potentially lethal gift either failed to work or never reached its victim. ["A Tyrant 40 Years in the Making", Roger Morris, New York Times, 14 Mar 2003]