It's wild to claim Saddam was a US ally just two years before Iraq invaded Kuwait against US demands and got bombed by the US in the Gulf War. You are confusing offshore balancing between Iraq and Iran during the Iran-Iraq war with "ally". You need to look up the definitions of these words.
And to claim Assad was a US ally is even more outrageous, where to even start. He was a Russian ally and a Hezbollah ally, not a US ally. All of his military equipment came from Russia. All of his air support came from Russia. He allowed Iranian arms to flow to Hezbollah and was supported on the ground in Syria by Hezbollah. And he is now hiding in Russia playing video games after killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. He and the US had a common foe in ISIS for a period, but they were otherwise antagonistic over the duration of the civil war.
Saddam was a de facto US ally till 1988. The relationship ended with the end of their mutual interests.
US sent terrorism suspects to Bashar regime to be tortured after 9/11.
Yeah eventually both relationships fell out but all the vile things both did happened under US watch, and US only stepped in when political/economic clash happened.
We are adhering to definitions of words. The US engaged in classic offshore balancing by backing Iraq when Iran gained the momentum on the frontline. There was no alliance between Iraq and the US.
waiting for details on how "backing Iraq" is materially different from an "alliance" with Iraq...I'm hesitant to throw yet _another_ word into the mix but there's an entire wikipedia page on US "support" for Iraq.
And to claim Assad was a US ally is even more outrageous, where to even start. He was a Russian ally and a Hezbollah ally, not a US ally. All of his military equipment came from Russia. All of his air support came from Russia. He allowed Iranian arms to flow to Hezbollah and was supported on the ground in Syria by Hezbollah. And he is now hiding in Russia playing video games after killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. He and the US had a common foe in ISIS for a period, but they were otherwise antagonistic over the duration of the civil war.