The whole dispute started because Kuwait was slant-drilling. Using equipment bought from National Security Council chief Brent Scowcroft's old company, Kuwait was pumping out some $14-billion worth of oil from underneath Iraqi territory. Even the territory they were drilling from had originally been Iraq's. Slant-drilling is enough to get you shot in Texas, and it's certainly enough to start a war in the Mideast.
Even so, this dispute could have been negotiated. But it's hard to avoid a war when what you're actually doing is trying to provoke a war.
The most famous example of that is the meeting between Saddam and the US Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, five days before Iraq invaded Kuwait. As CIA satellite photos showed an Iraqi invasion force massing on the Kuwaiti border, Glaspie told Hussein that "the US takes no position" on Iraq's dispute with Kuwait.
A few days later, during last-minute negotiations, Kuwait's foreign minister said: "We are not going to respond to [Iraq]....If they don't like it, let them occupy our territory....We are going to bring in the Americans." The US reportedly encouraged Kuwait's attitude.
Pitting the two countries against each other was nothing new. Back in 1989, CIA Director William Webster advised Kuwait's security chief to "take advantage of the deteriorating economic situation in Iraq to put pressure on Iraq.'' At the same time, a CIA-linked think tank was advising Saddam to put pressure on the Kuwaitis.
A month earlier, the Bush administration issued a secret directive that called for greater economic cooperation with Iraq. This ultimately resulted in billions of dollars of illegal arms sales to Saddam.
The Gulf War further destabilized the region and made Kuwait more dependent on us. US oil companies can now exert more control over oil prices (and thus boost their profits). The US military got an excuse to build more bases in the region (which Saudi Arabia, for one, didn't want) and the war also helped justify the "need" to continue exorbitant levels of military spending. Finally, it sent a message to Third World leaders about what they could expect if they dared to step out of line.
thirdworldtraveler.com
12.4.90: Saddam Hussein meets with four US senators including Robert Dole. Dole reassures Hussein that the US press is "…spoiled and conceited…" and that Congressional sanctions issues did not reflect Bush administration sentiment. Dole tells Hussein that a Voice of America broadcaster who had been critical of Iraq had been fired. This is a lie.
CIA official Charles Eugene Allen, National Intelligence Officer for Warning, has his biweekly report on developing trouble spots suspended, and his staff at the Pentagon and National Intelligence Council shrunk after his repeated warning that Iraq would invade Kuwait. (Source: New York Times 24.1.91)
5.90: In regard to overproduction of oil, Iraq accuses Kuwait of economic warfare.
6.90: Iraq sends envoys to several Arab states with appeals for new oil quotas. Kuwait refuses and rejects pleas for a summit.
JULY 1990
10th: A Summit takes place, and new quotas are set, but the following day Kuwait announces that it will increase oil production substantially by October. Ali Al Bedah, a Kuwait pro-democracy activist later stated:
"I think if the Americans had not pushed, the Royal Family would never have taken the steps that it did to provoke Saddam."
Dr. Mussama Al Mubarak, Political Science Professor at Kuwait University stated:
"I don’t know what the government was thinking, but it adopted an extremely hard line, which makes me think that the decisions were not Kuwait’s alone. It is my assumption that, as a matter of course, Kuwait would have consulted on such matters with Saudi Arabia and Britain, as well as the United States."
17th: Saddam publicly accuses the US and Kuwait of waging economic war against Iraq. The next day Iraqi troops begin massing on the Kuwaiti border.
24th: US State Department spokes woman Margaret Tutweiller tells US reporters:
"We do not have any defence treaties with Kuwait, and there are no special defence or security commitments to Kuwait."
25th: Saddam Hussein tries to clarify US policy. US Ambassador April Glaspie travels to Iraq and informs him:
"We have no opinion on Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait. James Baker [US Secretary of State] has directed our official spokesmen to emphasise this instruction."
Norman Schwarzkopf convenes CENTCOM commanders for an exercise which simulates an Iraqi drive into Kuwait.
"When the real thing came, the only way they could tell the real intelligence from the practice intelligence was the little ‘t’ in the corner of the paper…’t’ for training" (Source: New York Daily News 29.9.90)
Schwarzkopf runs elaborate war games pitting 100,000 US troops against Iraqi divisions.
The Emir of Kuwait finally agrees to a mini summit with Iraq on 31st July but sends the Prime Minister in his stead with a written note not to concede anything:
"This is also the opinion of our friends in Egypt, Washington and London. Be unwavering your discussions. We are stronger than they think." (Source: Dr. Michael Emery, Professor of journalism at California State University)
28th + 29th: The CIA predicts that an Iraqi Invasion will take place on the 2nd of August, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee (Source: Philip Agee, Z Magazine, Nov.1990)
30th: King Hussein of Jordan takes a delegation to Kuwait to discuss Iraqi/ Kuwait relations as Iraqi troops mass on the border. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheik Sabah Ahmed Al-Jaberb al-Sabah tells the Jordanians:
"We are not going to respond […] if they don’t like it, let them occupy our territory […] we are going to bring in the Americans."
31st: The Defence Intelligence Agency detects Iraqi forces moving fuel, water, and ammunition to troops on the border. On the same day, Assistant US Secretary of State John Kelly tells a House Sub-committee hearing:
"We have no defence treaty relationships with any of those countries. We have historically avoided taking a position on border disputes or on internal OPEC deliberations."
Kelly is questioned in the House by Representative Lee Hamilton.
Hamilton: "If Iraq, for example, charged across the border into Kuwait, for whatever reason, what would be our position with regard to the use of US forces? [….] In that circumstance, is it correct to say [….] that we do not have a treaty commitment which would oblige us to engage US forces?
Kelly: "That is correct."
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