Saddam with Donald Rumsfeld in 1983. The United States backed Saddam Hussein during the Iran, Iraq war. Most Arab nations and the United States supported him with artillery and medical supplies during this time.
It wasn't until Saddam pushed oil-exporting countries to raise oil prices by cutting back oil production did the United States change there mind on him.
Meanwhile, Saddam showed disdain for the Kuwait-Iraq boundary line (imposed on Iraq by British imperial officials in 1922) because it almost completely cut Iraq off from the sea. For at least half a century, Iraqi nationalists were espousing emphatically the belief that Kuwait was historically an integral part of Iraq, and that Kuwait had only come into being through the maneuverings of the British. So what right did the United States have in getting involved in that war?
Saddam deserves to go to jail for life. But the US isn't so righteous. This isn't about human rights at all.