Saddam had already matched that scale of destruction in the Iraq-Iran war, which killed many times more people. That fact doesn't exonerate the USA (which suppo

Saddam had already matched that scale of destruction in the Iraq-Iran war, which killed many times more people. That fact doesn't exonerate the USA (which supported Iraq at the time!) or justify the 2003 war, but the human cost of his reign wasn't small, and given his subsequent invasion of Kuwait there was very little reason to expect he was done with invading and occupying people.