1—Saddam has been a dictator in charge in Iraq for many years. he fought the Iranians to a standstill, even though the Iranians had killed all their officers and senior sergeants when they deposed the shah. then he tried to take over Kuwait. then he kept large amounts of nerve gas and other weapons of mass destruction on hand (we know he had them, we had the receipts from when we sold them to him while he was fighting Iran). USA now bogged down in war/civil war/insurrection

2—oil

3—govt answers to the church in Iran, govt/church stifles protests, not allowed to shoot your mouth off like in USA