I am curious... What happened before Desert Shield?

[Charean]

I was in Sicily at the time, so I was very isolated. We didn't get world news much less US news.

When Iraq invaded Kuwait, how did the world react to that? What did France say then?

[John D Harris]

Here are a couple of links:
http://www.cryan.com/war/
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpag...efid=761551555

There are other links but these should give you a good basis to start from.

[Charean]

Wow. Wow. Great articles.

It appears that the invasion of Kuwait didn't do it - but thier pleas for help did. The worst part is that the Kurds and the Shias tried to rebel, no one in the international community helped them. We gave lip service.

I almost feel like we kept him in power because it was easier to deal with the devil you know.

I keep wondering how much of this we (as a world community) brought on ourselves. Heck, all of it.

[John D Harris]

Originally posted by Charean: Wow. Wow. Great articles. It appears that the invasion of Kuwait didn't do it - but thier pleas for help did. The worst part is that the Kurds and the Shias tried to rebel, no one in the international community helped them. We gave lip service. I almost feel like we kept him in power because it was easier to deal with the devil you know. I keep wondering how much of this we (as a world community) brought on ourselves. Heck, all of it.

You got that right, we brought this all on ourselves. What's the old saying "the sins of the father are visited upon the son".
IMHO bush 41 didn't finish the job because of the coalition and UN diplomacy was get Iraq out of Kuwait, not topple Iraq. Then we the USA turned our backs on the people that were trying to rebel. That is one of the reasons I dislike colations and the UN. Bush 43 has had to do alot of fence mending to get the Kurds and Shia's to think about coming along on this new attempt. I've read several Kurd and Shia web sites, the essence of them are they are going to wait until they are sure the USA is really going to finish the job. After our troops are on the ground in Iraq and they see we mean to do what we say they will then help. I believe that is why there is the military plan to do an Air-Land attack simultaniously (sp?)

[ 03-16-2003, 12:29 AM: Message edited by: John D Harris ]

[Wutang]

The Kuwait invasion will go down as Saddam's most egregious mistake.

Saddam seriously miscalculated American response. He didn't think Bush Sr would do anything.

It's interesting to speculate what if he didn't invade. The US military wouldn't be there, nor in Saudi Arabia, and there would have been no fly zones nor any UN sanctions.

Plus Osama Bin laden's cohorts would have found it more difficult to recruit martyrs for the 9/11 attacks.

[ 03-16-2003, 09:38 PM: Message edited by: Wutang ]

[Charean]

That last question is interesting, indeed.

It is very sad to me that we have been so short-sighted. Even now, on the brink of an invasion, is anyone really aware of the long-term effects this will have on the UN, or the country?

We are also on the brink of the largest deficit in our history.

This is ugly no matter how you look at it.

I guess it's back to inspections when I drive people to the airport... those who are brave enough to fly right now. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[The Lilarcor]

And I read somewhere that in the 50's or around there, we supplied Iraqi's with weapons to fight off the USSR, so basically, its all our fault. We need to be more careful after how we deal with other countries.

[Wutang]

Well that's Geopolitics for you. Yesterday's friends are today's enemies and vice versa.