U.S. Gave Green Light for Iraq to Invade Kuwait

Arabic-Media ^ | March 3,2003 | Untitled

[lewislynn]

"I have direct instructions from President Bush to improve our relations with Iraq. We have considerable sympathy for your quest for higher oil prices

That says more to me about "read my lips" Bush than anything else in the article.

[zook]

It doesn't hurt me. It's just bullsh**. If you like spreading bullsh**, then post away. Hope you're enjoying your Moby CDs.

[Rome2000]

The fact that April Glaspie is an idiot has been widely known since 1991.

Her stupidity pales in comparison, however , to that of Saddams.

Saddam didn't learn from his mistake back in 1991 either.

He still didn't understand that there is a difference between Democrats and Republicans.

[vbmoneyspender]

This is the transcript that Hussein prepared of his meeting with Gillespie. As such, it's veracity should be taken with a grain of salt, particularly since the meeting that is allegedly transcribed here took place in Iraq, which meant that Ms. Gillespie probably didn't have her own transcriber at the ready.

[Stagerite]

The use of the term "Greenlight" is misleading in that America did not santion or issue invasion orders to Iraqi troops. In addition, it was diplomatically unacceptable for an American official to advise against invasion of Kuwait.

America's dominant reasons for militarily stopping Saddam in 1990 was the protection of Saudi oil fields and the maintenance of stabiilty in the Middle East.

[Pan_Yan]

This is the rational reasoning and substantiated analysis of our resident academic?

[RonHolzwarth]

"So, we are still debating Iraqi propaganda as truth."

What? Arabs lie?

Surely you joust?

s/

[Pan_Yan]

When she appeared before House and Senate panels last March, the former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, persuaded their members that she had talked tough to Saddam Hussein in the days before he invaded Kuwait. "I hope my credibility is at least as great as Saddam Hussein's," she told the Senators then. Contradicting the Iraqi leader's derisive account, she insisted that she had firmly warned him that the U.S. would not tolerate the use of force against Kuwait.

Not so, say Senators who have now seen the cables she sent back to the State Department in those critical days. Instead of a spirited defense of U.S. interests, Senators found waffling and appeasement. "No place does [Glaspie] report clearly delivering the kind of warning she described in her testimony to the committee," said Democratic Senator Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island. California Democratic Senator Alan Cranston charged that she "deliberately misled Congress about her role."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: Time, 7/22/91, Vol. 138 Issue 3, p44, 1p

[Petronski]

Oh geez, not this $h!t again.

[wingster]

Where are the endorsements by then Pres. Bush Sr. for Iraqi military members to condone the dismemberment and torture of little children, infants, minorities, and women, particularly pregnant ones...

Y-A-W-N!!!

Also, if this is true, then where was all the outrage in the then media as a result of the Cain raised by the Iraqi's and Sad-damn Hussein for getting "double crossed" by Bush.

This notion is as silly as that of Kerry being anything other than a fool.

[Pan_Yan]

Congress seemed to accept Glaspie's claim that she dealt firmly with Saddam, and that served both her interests and Baker's. No one in the administration was eager to admit, on the record, that prewar U.S. policy toward Iraq was tinged with appeasement in hopes of making Saddam more cooperative. "We virtually gave him the green light [to attack Kuwait]," said a senior U.S. diplomat in the Middle East. "If I had been sitting where he was sitting and getting the signals he was getting from Washington and elsewhere at the time, I would probably also have gambled on the invasion of Kuwait." So far, the State Department refuses to publish Glaspie's cable. The administration deliberately muzzled her as the gulf crisis unfolded, a Bush aide conceded, in order to cut off discussion of how Washington had handled Saddam. "It would have highlighted how cozy we were trying to be with him," he said.

Could the invasion have been prevented by a stern lecture on July 25? Not from a schoolmarmish ambassador, and probably not from anyone. Even if Glaspie had adopted a tougher tone, it would not have made any difference. Except to her career. Although Glaspie may have salvaged her reputation, she herself is stuck in bureaucratic limbo. Her successor in Baghdad has already been selected, and so far no new job has been announced for her. She is an expert on the Arabs, and speaks their language "like a nightingale," says one of her friends. She was the first American woman to become ambassador to an Arab country and was highly regarded by her professional peers. But Washington's judgments often put style ahead of substance, and April Glaspie is unlikely to win another high-profile Arab embassy.

Source: Newsweek, 4/1/91, Vol. 117 Issue 13, p17, 1p

I don't see how this means we gave permission for torture, etc. It just raises the question of how competent our policy was with regards to Iraq prior to the Kuwait invasion.

I expected more factual data from FR than this. If this story is such BS, then FR should be full of links and posts refuting it with facts. So far I haven't gotten any.

[vbmoneyspender]

Whose transcript do you think you are reading? Do you think that is Gillespie's transcript of the meeting because Hussein kindly let her bring her own transcriber to their meeting, which took place in one of Hussein's pleasure palaces, or do you think that is Hussein's transcript of the meeting? Answers these questions and you'll figure out why people didn't pay too much attention to the argument that Hussein made on this subject.

[wingster]

Don't be a dope!

I was clearly being facetious. If even an inkling of this had been true Blather, Brokenjaw, CNN, the NYT, LAT, etc., etc., etc. would have been all over this like a cheap suit at some point. Can you even imagine?

They get excited over lies, pure lies. If this had been true we wouldn't have been here discussing this today wondering if it were or not. It'd have been out a decade ago easy. And in spades!

It's drivel! Screed!

[Consort]

Try to catch up to the rest of us.

[Pan_Yan]

I am trying to catch up. Thats why I posted this and asked the Freepers to fill me in on what I had missed. Once again, I am looking for the truth and am only getting white noise.

Feel free to show me where this has been debunked by a legitimate source. The Arabic Media might be slightly biased (/sarcasm). But your propaganda doesn't cancel out their propaganda. It just puts you in the same class as them.

[Casloy]

The point wasn't whether she told Saddam what he should or shouldn't do regarding Iraq. The point is she never told him the US wouldn't care if he invaded Iraq. I have no idea if she is defensible or not, and at this point it is totally irrelevant. On the other hand, I wouldn't put a lot of value in anything Pell or Cranston said, either.

[Consort]

I am trying to catch up.

You have to try harder. Don't worry about what happened back then; the Democrats will do that for you.

[Rome2000]

It'd have been out a decade ago easy. And in spades!

It was out a decade ago.

It's another reason you shouldn't send a woman to do a mans job.

The fact that Glaspie didn't have enough sense to make herself clear about the consequences of an Iraqi invasion of Kuwat doesn't translate into her or the USA being responsible for that maniacs agression.

It just makes us responsible for putting the wrong person in the job.

[zook]

My reasoning? Well, I'd never allow much class time to be spent on passing myths for facts. I wouldn't allow students to use class time to spread phony ideas. The story you posted falls into the category of "Hitler didn't really kill all those people" type stories. You could have done a few web searches and found out that the story was bogus. But instead, you posted it here with an aura of phony innocence.

I hear "We Are All Made Of Stars" is a really nice tune.

[mewzilla]

It's another reason you shouldn't send a woman to do a mans job.

Tell it to Maggie Thatcher :)