In the 1980s the U.S. government ignored intelligence warnings of Iraq's human rights record and continued to support Saddam Hussein, according to Bruce Jentleson, associate professor of political science at UC Davis and director of the UC Davis Washington Center. Jentleson argues in his new book, "With Friends Like These: Reagan, Bush and Saddam, 1982-1990," that few U.S. foreign policy strategies have gone so far awry as the decision to support Hussein at that time. Following the principle that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend," the Reagan administration first initiated contact with Hussein in order to tilt the balance away from Iran and the Soviet Union, according to Jentleson. "Even as late as 1989, after the Iran-Iraq war had ended and Iraq's horrifying human rights record was apparent to all, the U.S. continued to provide economic, political and even military help to Saddam." Irrespective of the military success in the Gulf War that followed, the important lesson to be learned is that the enemy of my enemy may be my friend, but he also may still be my enemy, says Jentleson, a former special assistant to President Clinton's State Department.