Quote:
Originally posted by Beestie
Iran, my friend, is NOT an Arab nation.
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Accurately stated. The post should have said Muslim or regional nation; not Arab nation.
Other nations with no legal claim against Saddam were Turkey and Israel. Saddam coveted his neighbors including Iran and Kuwait. Had he been successful, then it would probably only been time before he devoured Saudia Arabia, Jordan, and Syria to form a pan-Arab nation. This was his grandious objective which made him a threat to his neighbors. He started first by attacking what he thought would be an easy takeover -Iran. Easy because even we would provide him with satellite intelligence and chemicals for chemical warfare to help him succeed. Starting with Iran and afterwards, everything started going downhill. However Saddam seems to be the last to realize where he was going in his objectives.
Two nations that Saddam would never attack were Turkey and Israel. Turkey is NATO. And NATO is the US. Israel is obviously protected by the US. Saddam would do everything possible to avoid conflict with the US. Even Saddam knew where to attack and what to leave alone. He chose to attack nations that the US said would be permitted. He failed in Iran. He misinterpreted what he was told about Kuwait. But every Muslim and regional nation always kept one eye on Saddam. They did not trust him - but tolerated him because he was no direct threat - unless they lost US support. Saddam always tried to avoid conflict with the US. But his ego got in the way of logical analysis - and he therefore made a big mistake in Kuwait. Only then did we get concerned that we had all but encouraged him to build chemical and biological weapons. Before he invaded Kuwait, Saddam was considered a US friend - so much so that we even shared intelligence satellite information with him.