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On July 25, 1990, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (executed by
U.S. and puppet Iraqi forces in 2003) summoned then-U.S. Ambassador
April Glaspie to discuss his concerns about the U.S. role in a border
dispute between Iraq and Kuwait.
Kuwait, a tiny sheikdom ruled by an oil-rich monarchy that had once
been part of Iraq until the British seized it as a colony, was being
used clandestinely by the U.S. to provoke the Iraqi government. Slant
drilling under Iraq’s border to steal oil, overproducing their own oil
to drive down the price, and denying Iraq access to the Persian Gulf
constituted economic warfare that would undoubtedly produce a response
from the Iraqi government.
Hussein met with Glaspie to discuss Iraq’s response to the border
dispute and to get the official perspective of the U.S. government. As
released in the classified diplomatic cable, Ambassador Glaspie gave
Hussein this perspective: “The Ambassador said that she had served in
Kuwait 20 years before; then, as now, we took no position on these Arab
affairs.” Iraq invaded Kuwait just one week later.
Iraq’s leadership expected that their military incursion into Kuwait
would lead to a negotiated settlement of the disputed issues within the
context of the Arab League Summit that was scheduled for Aug. 6, 1990.
Instead, Egypt, under pressure from the U.S. government, scuttled the
negotiations. The administration of George H.W. Bush then immediately
sent hundreds of thousands of US troops to Saudi Arabia in preparation
for a war against Iraq.
The U.S. government’s plan all along was to give Iraq the green light
to resolve the dispute, make Iraq believe that the U.S. would be an
impartial arbiter, and use Iraq’s response as a pretext to launch a war
against the oil-rich, independent country.
This cable released by WikiLeaks confirms what happened in the
infamous Glaspie-Hussein meeting. It shatters the official justification
for the Gulf War. Assuring Iraq that Washington had “no position” on
the border dispute, then unleashing the full might of the U.S. military
on Iraq shows there was a true conspiracy to cripple the country and,
ultimately, make it subservient to U.S. interests.
The U.S. bombing campaign that began on January 1991 continued every
single day up through the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq in
March 2003.
