re: What If April Glaspie Had Never Given Saddam The Green Light?

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He wasn't so loose that he didn't have sense enough to seek permission before invading Kuwait, and remember, the U.S. was egging him on when he attacked Iran. I also think Saddam may have been emboldened by Reagan's willingness to use his veto at the U.N. Security Council to protect him on a few occasions, such as when he used chemical weapons on Iran and the Kurds. EDIT: I also wonder if the fact that Saddam and Glaspie had to rely on a translator to communicate might have contributed to this, because languages have a lot of subtleties and no two languages translate perfectly from one to the other.

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I honestly don't have a lot of background on what kind of support Saddam enjoyed within our government following the Iran-Iraq war. I know we still considered him "one of ours", but I'm of the mind that we were pretty wary of him by the time Bush took office in 1989. I don't know if the Bush admin would have protected him. And the fact that we so strongly and unequivocally condemned the invasion into Kuwait just makes the language in some of the transcripts seem curious. Some read as though Glaspie sort of subtly said "we're watching your build-up along the border, but it's not really and American issue (concern?)). Others kind of tepidly do indicate that we are concerned by the developments. You've obviously looked into this more than I have, but I am interested in it now. Have to do some digging, though.