The US was a huge fan of Saddam, they provided him with a lot of weapons to fight Iran and to gas the Kurds. They were also quite happy with Assad when they were sending people there from the war on terror to be tortured after 9/11. Assad even warned the U.S. about a plot to blow up a US destroyer. Relations deteriorated after Bush went after Iraq again for no reason.

I do not know about "we". I am not a fan of any murderer myself. This area has been marked for "free use" by several foreign forces over the years. The thing is, there is no free use, you have to pay eventually one way or another.