You are missing a few pieces.
Saddam had an audience with April Glaspie, the US Ambassador to Iraq, and told him he intended to invade Kuwait. Glaspie replied.
"We have no opinion on your Arab-Arab conflicts, such as your dispute with Kuwait.
Secretary Baker has directed me to emphasize the instruction, first given to Iraq in the 1960s, that the Kuwait issue is not associated with America."
In short, we didn't care. It wasn't our problem. Just like it wasn't our problem when Saddam invaded Iran. Fuck, we actively supported him when he did that.
Then Mr. Jew in Washington rubbed his little grubby hands together and said, "This is our chance to get America to take out Saddam for us!!!"
Americans died, others came back with chronic diseases, for a war that REALLY WASN'T OUR PROBLEM.