Kuwait was the only major regional ally that supported the U.S.-led 2003 Invasion of Iraq, because Kuwait had hostility towards Saddam's Iraq stemmed from the events surrounding the first Persian Gulf War. The public appeared to consider Saddam to be as much of a threat in 2003 as he was in the past, and were particularly interested in attempts to repatriate many Kuwaiti citizens who had disappeared during the Gulf War, and were presumably languishing in Iraqi jails up until Saddam's fall from power. Kuwait also allowed the U.S. to launch the 2003 invasion of Iraq from the U.S. military bases stationed in Kuwait. However, Kuwait did not deploy forces to the Iraq War. In 2004, President Bush designated Kuwait as a Major non-NATO ally