[link|http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch36.htm|Here].

The goal of the Bush administration remained normal relations and expanded trade with Iraq. On July 25, 1990, an American diplomat, April Glaspie, met with Saddam Hussein. She spoke of U.S. disapproval of settlement of disputes "by any but peaceful means," which to Saddam Hussein might have sounded like pacifist nonsense and hypocrisy. Then she told Saddam that "we have no opinion of the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."


Since, AFAIK, the purported transcripts out there on the web often don't mention the "peaceful means" stuff, and AFAIK, the US State Department and AG haven't said those transcripts are genuine, I think we have to take these statements with a grain of salt. That includes [link|http://www.chss.montclair.edu/english/furr/glaspie.html|this] link Mike posted in December.

And a lot of this stuff was already covered [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=69119|here] in December. You guys might save some time by just reposting some of those links.

:-)

Cheers,
Scott.