What they want is CONTROL of those gas & oil reserves. They don’t want a competitor selling energy to Europe. This whole war is about oil.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4050958/posts
The last time there was a local tyrant who invaded his neighbor over oil rights, there was an international coalition that kicked his ass back to Iraq. The only mistake was that we didn’t round him up.
My sons based at Ft. Bragg was on mission that August, and 6 days later was in Saudi Arabia along the northern border with Kuwait. I paid a lot of attention to what was going on there. I was wondering why we did not keep the attack going longer as we decimated the retreating Iraquis as they fled from Kuwait with lots of loot. Then I read that Gorbachev was at risk of being overthrown by other Russians who disapproved of his opening toward the west. Then it made sense. However, I still think we should have continued the pursuit for 12 more hours to destroy Saddam’s Republican Guard. The other mistake was not maintaining a No Fly Zone after the fighting was over. This failure caused much misery for the hapless Iraq people as son Kusai(sp?) followed dad’s orders to punish various groups.