Joel, you should look up "April Glaspie Iraq." Glaspie was our acting ambassador to Iraq just before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. She had a meeting with him just before the invasion where she relayed a message from then Sec. of State James Baker III. That message: We value our alliance with Iraq. We have no interest in your Arab vs Arab disputes. We regard them as an internal matter.
In other words, go ahead and invade, we don't care.
We had been backing him in his war against Iran, so it was easy for him to believe.
If Glaspie had threatened him with a full scale counter-invasion then history would have been different. But we needed a replacement for the Soviet Union, so we encouraged him to go in. We are one of the root causes of violence in the region.
Joel, you should look up "April Glaspie Iraq." Glaspie was our acting ambassador to Iraq just before Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. She had a meeting with him just before the invasion where she relayed a message from then Sec. of State James Baker III. That message: We value our alliance with Iraq. We have no interest in your Arab vs Arab disputes. We regard them as an internal matter.
In other words, go ahead and invade, we don't care.
We had been backing him in his war against Iran, so it was easy for him to believe.
If Glaspie had threatened him with a full scale counter-invasion then history would have been different. But we needed a replacement for the Soviet Union, so we encouraged him to go in. We are one of the root causes of violence in the region.