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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

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To: SecularBull who wrote (372640)3/17/2003 4:01:00 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof  Read Replies (1) of 769670
 
Re: "How could the Gulf War have been avoided?"

>>> Well, supposedly our American Ambassador to Iraq - in a meeting with Saddam prior to hostilities - answered a question from the Iraqis by saying that 'the US has no interest in Arab on Arab conflicts'. Presumably Iraq would not have launched the invasion if they hadn't thought we would stand aside.

>>> Saddam's main beef with the Kuwaitis at the time was that they were pumping oil full-out (far above their OPEC-agreed production limits) and supposedly they were using 'slant drilling' to drill under the border and pump oil from the Iraqi side of the border.

>>> This was putting a severe financial hurt on the Iraqi regime.

>>> Intelligence suggests that Saddam never thought originally that he could get away with an invasion (up until that meeting with our Ambassador, anyway)... but he was trying to put pressure on Kuwait to end the slant drilling that was stealing Iraq's oil, and to lower their production.

>>> He had big debts let over from that disasterous decade-long war with Iran... and oil at $10 a barrel was busting him up.
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