From: niepornt@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (David Marc Nieporent)
Subject: Re: Whatever happened to ... Iraq? Redux
Originator: news@nimaster
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 18:32:23 GMT

In article <BuML02.4sy.2@cs.cmu.edu> anwar+@cs.cmu.edu (Anwar Mohammed) writes:
>In article <1992Sep10.202536.26994@athena.mit.edu> anders@athena.mit.edu (Anders W Hove) writes:
>>In article <27672@life.ai.mit.edu>, elwin@ai.mit.edu (Lee Campbell) writes:
 
>>|>    What did our ambassador to Iraq say to Saddam Hussein just before
>>|> he invaded Kuwait?  Ross Perot claimed the ambassador gave Iraq
>>|> permission to take over some oil fields, and then we were surprised
>>|> when he took the whole country.  Is this true?  Did we blunder?  Who
>>|> instructed the ambassador?  Why weren't Perot's allegations checked?
 
>>|>    Naahhh... "family values" are much more important, aren't they?
 
>>    Ross Perot was refering to the conversation held between a State Dept
>>official named April Glaspie and Saddam Hussein a few days before the latter
>>invaded Kuwait.  Glaspie was an Arabist who was of the opinion that we were
>>really making progress with the Iraqi regime (in terms of the cause of
>>democracy). Because she feared that irking Saddam would endanger the
>>establishment of a joint Iraq/US "interpretive center" in Baghdad, she thought it
>>would be better to be nice to him.  She received permission to inform S. Hussein
>>that the US "[had] no official position on Iraq's border dispute with Kuwait". 
>>Apparently,Saddam took this as official permission from Bush to invade Kuwait. 
>>A few days later, Iraqi tanks reached the Saudi border.

>I want to reinforce that this is pure nonsense that no one, even the Iraqis,
>believes.  In addition to the earlier references involving the U.S. military
>response prior to the invasion of Kuwait, I've included an oft forgotten
>reference regarding the Glaspie affair.  The following is a chronology based 
>on newspaper articles at the time:

Totally irrelevant chronology, except for the part where Tariq Aziz says
AFTER the war that they expected it.

>May 31, 1991  After the war is over and gone, Iraq's erstwhile Foreign Minister
>       and current Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz finally puts to rest the 
>       Glaspie controversy by saying that "Saddam Hussein did not believe that 
>       US Ambassador April Glaspie gave him a green light to seize Kuwait and
>       expected a severe American reaction." **

What did you expect him to say?  "Saddam Hussein was a total moron and
made a complete miscalculation?  George Bush told us to take Kuwait and
we were stupid enough to believe him."

I mean, really.  Think.  He EXPECTED the US to "bomb them back to the
stone age," as some have said, but didn't care?

>>And what happened in the next few weeks before the invasion?
>>Was it planned?  Are we to really believe that Iraq's long-time
>>financial supporter was not aware of Saddam's ruthlessness?  Could
>>just call this a fluke?  That the U.S. Naval warships just turned
>>their back on a possible situation?  That there was not money or
>>power to the United States' interests in the Middle East at the
>>expense of another nation?

I don't think we really think he planned to invade Kuwait.  What Bush
thought was that he'd just take the Ramallah oil field and leave the
rest of Kuwait alone, and after all, Bush didn't really care about that.
(Why is this surprising?  He also didn't care about the Kurds, either
being poison gassed before the war or bombed after it.  He didn't care
about the Bosnians or Lithuanians after they declared their independence
from their respective countries.  Or the Chinese students at
Tiennamen.  Or the Haitian people today.  Or the Panamanians.)

>>Anwar, save your books that only support your personal feelings
>>and ignore the possible truth about the whole situation just to
>>make yourself feel better.

>>And before you start spouting off what *you* perceive as the truth,
>>and calling people naive and accusing them of 'fantasizing', you'd
>>better check unbiased facts first.

-- 
David M. Nieporent   | Orioles 1992 World Series Champions
niepornt@phoenix.    | Mike Mussina 1992 AL Cy Young Winner
   princeton.edu     | Brady Anderson 1992 AL MVP
Vote Clinton/Gore '92.   Four more months!
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