happy that saddam was taken out of power and hung by their Shia brethren in Iraq
Since you mentioned the execution of Saddam, I should add the following, since said execution onto itself was pretty illustrative of the circumstances: the kangaroo court set up by USA occupation forces never mentioned, let alone accused Saddam of launching military aggression against Iran in 1980, nor did it hold him accountable for any of the war crimes committed against Iran including the large-scale use of chemical weapons - those same chemical weapons Iraq dismantled during the 1990's, and which Washington then lied about in order to justify its invasion of Iraq in 2003. Saddam was condemned for his 1990 invasion of Kuwait but not for his aggression against Iran.
Equally interesting is the fact that the chemical weapons attack on the northern Iraqi, Kurdish village of Halabja was greatly publicized by western regimes and the streamlined mainstream media - but not so much in 1988, when it took place. Rather, in late 1990 and early 1991 when Saddam had fallen out with the west after occupying Kuwait, as part of the narrative to prepare for the so-called operation Desert Storm. Again, those same regimes and media remained silent for the most part on Saddam's recurrent WMD strikes against both Iranian troops and civilians during the 1980-1988 Imposed War, which martyred many more than the Halabja massacre. And of course, hardly anyone in the west thought it appropriate to remember the IRGC personnel who were present at Halabja to support the Kurds and were martyred too.
These facts reveal the lengths to which Washington was willing to go to make sure its illegal invasion of Iraq and the subsequent removal of Saddam wouldn't benefit Iran nor offer Iran any compensation for the damage suffered at the hands of the then US-backed regime of Saddam.
But it doesn't stop there. Saddam's execution was also symbolic of how NATO occupiers were working against Iran's interests by promoting instability and social, political and religious strife on Iran's borders. Indeed, they chose to hang Saddam on the day of Eid, which was perceived as an insult by many Moslems worldwide, whether they felt any sympathy for Saddam or not. The not so innocent timing was also designed to fuel sectarian tensions between Sunni and Shia Moslems, since certain quarters were quick to designate "the Shia" as co-responsible for this affront, and to construe them as "collaborators" of western aggression, a fallacious theme which survived to this day, as can be witnessed on this very forum.
Fallacious theme that took shape not least because of how the masked hangmen at Saddam's execution were shouting "Muqtada! Muqtada!", in what appeared to be theatrics staged by the occupying powers with the precise goal of igniting sectarian resentment amongst Sunni Moslem communities. Muqtada Sadr, if anything, was known for his uncompromising stance vis à vis occupation forces, thus his men were unlikely to have offered their services to the Americans.
So, whilst many in Iran will have seen divine justice of sorts in the fact that Saddam ended up being liquidated by the same people who had supported him in his war of aggression against Iran, this didn't take away from the security threat posed by the neocon USA regime's invasion of two neighboring states and its rabid hostility towards Iran, conceived of as the next potential target on Washington's list - had it not been for the Resistance to USA occupation in Iraq, to which Iran contributed by supplying local Resistance groups. These two aspects aren't mutually exclusive.
It should also be reminded that Iran consistently opposed USA policy on Iraq. Be it in the 1980's, when Washington was propping up Saddam against Iran, in 2003 when they illegally invaded Iraq and throughout the 1990's when Iraq was subjected to an inhumane, devastating sanctions regime which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iraqis. Not only did Supreme Leader Khamenei vocally condemn those sanctions, but few countries apart from Iran actually tried to help Iraq circumvent them, as confirmed by the former director of Iraq's Central Bank, Assam Al-Mulla Huwaysh.
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