[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote,
I remember reading a long time ago that Saddam had quietly
informed the White House before the Kuwait invasion, and taken the
official silence as tacit consent. Any truth to this?
According to a partial transcript at
http://www.totse.com/en/conspiracy/the_new_world_order/glaspie.html
U.S. Ambassador Glaspie said the following to Saddam Hussein on 25
July 1990, referring to a possible forthcoming invasion:
Normally that would be none of our business, but when this happens
in the context of your threats against Kuwait, then it would be
reasonable for us to be concerned.
I cannot find the full transcript that I cut out of the New York Times
in the fall of 1990, a transcript that the NYT said was the Iraqi
version. If my memory serves me rightly, there were slight
differences in the wording between that version and this. In
particular, in the NYT version the `but' begins a new sentence. But
as I remember, this is a fair restatement of what the NYT said was the
Iraqi version.
The critical point is that almost all quotations I see in the US media
quote only the part that says
... that would be none of our business ...
which does suggest a `green light'.
Incidentally, the latter part of the Web page I quoted records a
journalist as saying or asking Glaspie that `America green-lighted the
invasion.'
As far as I can see, since the US did not have a treaty with Kuwait,
Glaspie could not say any more than she did, which was that
... it would be reasonable for us to be concerned.
In any event, she was blamed by the US government as well as by others
for the invasion.
You will note that the invasion of Kuwait was the first invasion and
absorption of a second country since WWII. (Kuwait was recognized by
the UN as a sovereign country. It was not a `protocol state' like the
Koreas or Vietnams. Other invasions and occupations between 1945 and
1990 either were civil wars in the international legal sense or else
did not involve annexation.)
Also, I have heard it said that British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher was the person who persuaded US President Bush to support the
UN.
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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