Reply #19: That has always been the "spin" that was put on the meeting in order [View All]

[BlueMTexpat]

to make a sacrificial goat of Ms Glaspie, who was not a Bush appointee but a career Foreign Service Ambassador. According to the cable itself, her response was much more generalized.
I do think it is clear, however, that Saddam was very nervous about his US support, that "some" (likely the predecessors to our better-known Neocons) were not happy about the Iran-Iraq War being over, that he was understandably unhappy about Kuwait's slant drill actions in violation of OPEC, that he was actually trying many things with those who later betrayed him (Mubarak, Fahd. etc.) to defuse the situation, and that he was genuinely concerned not only about the plight of the Palestinians (at the time much less harrowing than it is currently) but also about people in his own country who would suffer because the oil prices were being held artifically low by the actions of Kuwait and the UAE.

I am no Saddam apologist. But I truly hate what Bush I and Baker did - and they did it knowingly and deliberately. I really do not believe that Ambassador Glaspie was ever knowingly a part of their plans or actions.

There is an excellent four-part HBO/BBC production "House of Saddam" that is really worth watching just to give you an idea of how totally screwed over both Gulf Wars were (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Saddam). But then our whole ME relationship is FUBAR.