Ray9
Diamond Member
- Jul 19, 2016
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The 24 hour news cycle is awash with the greatness of George HW Bush. This will probably last for at least a week maybe longer. When someone dies we like to focus on the good things about them. But US presidents are different. They have profound effects on the lives of many people and they are public figures. Bush’s greatness has a backstory.
To review let’s go back to a meeting on July 25, 1990. Saddam Hussein was rattling a sabre with 30,000 troops amassed on the Border of Kuwait. Iraq had a long standing dispute with Kuwait over debts owed that it used to finance its war with Iran. In addition Kuwait was producing petroleum at high levels which was driving Iraq’s oil revenues down. Saddam was at the end of his rope and he fully intended to annex Kuwait under a pretense it was stealing his oil through slant drilling.
This is where HW enters the picture. He dispatched April Glaspie, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, with a message for Hussein. The message did not say, if you attack Kuwait we will intervene militarily; it said something quite different. Glaspie delivered Bush’s message that the US wanted to maintain friendly relations with Iraq and were curious as to Saddam’s intentions.
Saddam made his case to Glaspie and she essentially responded by saying that what happens between Arabs stays between Arabs and is of no concern to the US. This was printed in the New York Times Sept. 1990. Clearly Saddam understood this to mean that the US didn’t care which Arabs it was getting oil from as long as it was getting it. He promptly attacked Kuwait eight days later.
After a global outcry Bush realized his fatal mistake and initiated the Gulf War to try to save face. On witnessing the slaughter and carnage imposed on Saddam’s troops as they tried to escape on a highway to hell, Arab hatred of the US escalated and the first attack on the World Trade Center occurred in 1993.
Saudi Arabia attacked it again in 2001 utterly destroying it and George W. Bush responded by attacking Iraq which had no part in it. Saving face is important and blood is thicker than water. 3,000 innocent American citizens died for that blood.
The flags drop, the legacy is safe and the Kool Aid is served. Don’t worry, it never runs out.
To review let’s go back to a meeting on July 25, 1990. Saddam Hussein was rattling a sabre with 30,000 troops amassed on the Border of Kuwait. Iraq had a long standing dispute with Kuwait over debts owed that it used to finance its war with Iran. In addition Kuwait was producing petroleum at high levels which was driving Iraq’s oil revenues down. Saddam was at the end of his rope and he fully intended to annex Kuwait under a pretense it was stealing his oil through slant drilling.
This is where HW enters the picture. He dispatched April Glaspie, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, with a message for Hussein. The message did not say, if you attack Kuwait we will intervene militarily; it said something quite different. Glaspie delivered Bush’s message that the US wanted to maintain friendly relations with Iraq and were curious as to Saddam’s intentions.
Saddam made his case to Glaspie and she essentially responded by saying that what happens between Arabs stays between Arabs and is of no concern to the US. This was printed in the New York Times Sept. 1990. Clearly Saddam understood this to mean that the US didn’t care which Arabs it was getting oil from as long as it was getting it. He promptly attacked Kuwait eight days later.
After a global outcry Bush realized his fatal mistake and initiated the Gulf War to try to save face. On witnessing the slaughter and carnage imposed on Saddam’s troops as they tried to escape on a highway to hell, Arab hatred of the US escalated and the first attack on the World Trade Center occurred in 1993.
Saudi Arabia attacked it again in 2001 utterly destroying it and George W. Bush responded by attacking Iraq which had no part in it. Saving face is important and blood is thicker than water. 3,000 innocent American citizens died for that blood.
The flags drop, the legacy is safe and the Kool Aid is served. Don’t worry, it never runs out.
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