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Aswad -> RE: Iraq war over,congradulations to our troops and thanks to President Obama for keeping a promise. (12/22/2011 1:25:33 AM)
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Thank you for digging up the reference, tweakabelle.
In all fairness to Mrs. Glaspie, though, we don't even need her statements to analyze this situation.
Prior to the First Gulf War:
1. Official US foreign policy was not to get involved at all.
2. Saddam was an important, valued ally and major exporter of oil.
3. Kuwait was drilling angled oil wells to siphon Iraqi oil across the border.
Of particular relevance to the points raised by Sanity: it is now, as it was then, recognized that Iraq, with Saddam Hussein at the helm, was one of the primary stopgaps against Iran in the Middle-East, and an important factor in fighting terrorists with Sunni extremist ties. This stopgap is recognized to have been effective enough to draw support also from the USSR, as well as Western Europe. It is known that terminating the Hussein presidency in Iraq removed this stopgap.
Saddam undoubtedly knew it would be an unpopular move, and that a war would only be tolerated if limited in duration and scope. But to guess that his allies would go to war against him for upholding the borders of his sovereign nation, and without giving any prior warning ("no opinion" does not count), is not a credible guess. Also, he would have to consider that Iraq would look weak if they did nothing to stop the Kuwaiti incursion. Finally, peaceful resolutions had already been sought in this conflict, of which Mrs. Glaspie was no doubt aware, so reiterating the desire for one is a filler piece, not actual input. He had already made it amply clear that the situation was not tolerable.
Still, let's examine it from one more angle.
Let's say there's an oil well in Texas, and then Mexico starts to drill into it. The drilling platform is placed on the other side of the border, but the bore is at an angle, so that it enters the well on the US side of the border. It siphons billions of dollars worth of oil from the well, and any complaints are brushed off by the statement "we haven't moved troops into Texas, so you can't do shit."
Does anyone here think the response by the USA would be anything short of exceedingly swift and violent?
I don't think Putin saying "your continent ain't my problem" would halt a military operation.
Russia firing off a retrograde ICBM and glassing DC would be a surprising outcome.
That's the story of Saddam, 140 degrees due West.
Health,
al-Aswad.
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