--- Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think the point, which you may be in a position to > address, is that the > US lied about there being 200k Iraq troops poised on > the border to invade > Saudi Arabia, and that this lie is the only reason > the UN sanctioned Gulf > War 1. In other words, right or wrong, invading > Kuwait was not grounds > enough for the UN to section the Gulf War, it took > lying by the US to get > the authorization. > > Dan M.
Ah, I see. OK, I didn't get that. Well, by the time the UN sanctioned the Gulf War, there was absolutely no question that Iraq would not be invading Saudi Arabia, because we already had enough troops on the ground to prevent it. So the whole thrust of the UN resolutions was about expelling Iraq from Kuwait. Clearly neither the US nor anyone else needed UN sanction to defend Saudi Arabia from Iraq. Actually, I would point out that clearly no one needed UN sanction to expel Iraq from Kuwait, either - the UN Charter explicitly grants every country the right to self-defense, and it's hard to think of a more clear cut case for self-defense than Kuwait vs. Iraq. So the justification for the war had little or nothing to do with protecting Saudi Arabia. We just put troops into Saudi Arabia in September of 1990 by showing the Saudis these satellite photos and saying - look, if you don't allow us in, you're screwed. Since the Saudis could look (literally) over their border and see Iraqi tanks, it's not as if we were tricking them or anything by saying that. King Fahd, IIRC, memorably commented to a Cabinet member who didn't want to allow Americans in, "The Kuwaitis said that and now they are living in our hotels!" Photo reconnaissance is, btw, a legendarily difficult thing to do, and the NRO is the best in the world at it by a very large margin, and has much better tools to work with as well. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
