The US backed Saddam Hussein only fifteen years before invading his country.

Evidence

As the Bush administration’s neoconservatives schemed to depose President Saddam Hussein—whom they had supported just fifteen years earlier in the Iran-Iraq War—Bush’s rhetoric invoked apocalyptic language appealing to his Evangelical Christian right-wing base. In his 2002 State of the Union, Bush declared that his doctrine of preemption would animate the US occupation of Iraq abroad and increase targeting of Muslims at home. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 719

Categorization

• CANDY: The US arming Saddam against Iran a decade and a half before deposing him is a striking timeline fact for casual conversation.