THE LESSONS OF KUWAIT -- GULF WAR I

[jimmoyer]

RESPONSE: no Saddam had not "made a gamble". He approached the U.S. Ambassador with complaints of Kuiwaiti 'slant drilling' into Iraqi oil resources. She responded that it was 'a regional issue and would require a regional solution. The U.S. would not interviene.' It looks like the Ambassador mislead Saddam. I have not refreshed my understanding, but I believe that Kuiwait had been part of Iraq until Britain separated it. Much of the Middle East was under European occupation in the first half of the last century.
-------------------------PoisonPete2-------------------------------------

PoisonPete2 you are correct in all those statements except
some debate still remains on who was honest on the matter
of Kuwait's slant drilling, or even the definition of it, or even
the matter of tapping a reservoir that existed trans-borders.

Of course, such a complaint helps Saddam's case, and so it
is also convenient as a crutch for him to stand upon. If anything
it helped Saddam's search for legitimacy. And it happens
to be quite effective in catching your support.

Nevertheless, it would not have been good precedent for
such a man who dreamt of Nebachadnezzer, who studied
Hitler and Stalin's methods, who built over a 200 palaces
instead of infrastructure for his people, each made with a brick
stamped with Saddam on it just like Nebachnezzer did and
who cynically financed incentives for families honoring
suicide bombers, to get away with one more precedent:
invading and keeping Kuwait.

The lesson of Kuwait is Saddam saying he should have
had established nuclear weapons before doing so.

The world would have stood by and let it happen.
And then what?

You got a nice precedent for a man who aspired for much
more.

But we cannot prove the horror we avoided, can we ?

We can only see the problems of NOW

 

[Colpy]

Lessons of Gulf War I

"There is no alternative to victory"
Douglas MacArthur

 

[the caracal kid]

lesson:

do not try to take the salmon from the hungry bear.

 

[Curiosity]

So when Hussein set fire to the wells in Kuwait......

He was actually setting fire to his own oil?

Gulf War ended too soon - it was a military show for television - with the deadline all set and the breaks for commercials.

Seems like a hundred years ago -

 

[Kreskin]

IMO we should've converted Saddam back into an allie. Lets face it, he was effective at eliminating the fanatical nuts. That's why we (the West) liked having him in there in the first place. But after GW1, particularly after 9-11, it became politcally expedient in the US to demonize anything that didn't pledge allegiance to the military industrial complex or Jerry Falwell.

 

[darkbeaver]

Re: RE: THE LESSONS OF KUWAIT -- GULF WAR I

lesson:

do not try to take the salmon from the hungry bear.

In the summer of 2002 a black bear tried to take a can of sardines away from me, it was half way through the doorway of my shack before I noticed it, my first thought was, my thats a big dog, I got up fast and slammed the door, it did not even know I was there, it was entirely intent on the can of sardines left on the table, I was not in it,s field of view.I watched it through the picture window for five minutes or so, it was only ten feet away, it was only when I called my brother on the cell-phone and it heard my voice that it became aware of me, it was more frightened of me than I was of it and it ran like a race horse for the trees. Lots of curious bears arround my summer residence.That has nothing to do with Kuwait, Madeline Albright sucked Saddam into the invasion of Kuwait. No bears were hurt in either story. Colin Powell murdered a lot of Iraqis on the road home though. best regards CK

 

[the caracal kid]

I have never had a problem with bears, and I have met quite a few. I literally have "run right into them" (trail running).

Anyway, the message of the tale was one of it is unwise to take on a larger more powerful animal because you are after what he has.

 

[#juan]

Re: RE: THE LESSONS OF KUWAIT -- GULF WAR I

IMO we should've converted Saddam back into an allie. Lets face it, he was effective at eliminating the fanatical nuts. That's why we (the West) liked having him in there in the first place. But after GW1, particularly after 9-11, it became politcally expedient in the US to demonize anything that didn't pledge allegiance to the military industrial complex or Jerry Falwell.

It would have been difficult to make an ally of Saddam after making about nine attempts to assassinate him with bombs.

 

[Kreskin]

Re: RE: THE LESSONS OF KUWAIT -- GULF WAR I

IMO we should've converted Saddam back into an allie. Lets face it, he was effective at eliminating the fanatical nuts. That's why we (the West) liked having him in there in the first place. But after GW1, particularly after 9-11, it became politcally expedient in the US to demonize anything that didn't pledge allegiance to the military industrial complex or Jerry Falwell.

It would have been difficult to make an ally of Saddam after making about nine attempts to assassinate him with bombs.

Yes, it was quite difficult for him to come on board under those conditions.

 

[Colpy]

Re: RE: THE LESSONS OF KUWAIT -- GULF WAR I

I have never had a problem with bears, and I have met quite a few. I literally have "run right into them" (trail running).

Anyway, the message of the tale was one of it is unwise to take on a larger more powerful animal because you are after what he has.

CK, that's a great way to get killed. Surprizing a bear is not wise. Get a noisemaker for your belt, and a can of bear spray, for God's sake.

The problem with black bears, at least around here, is they seem to be losing their fear of man.

A couple of years ago I was sitting in a ground blind waiting for deer, when a black bear came up the trail. I watched him for a few moments as he progressed closer to the blind, then I realized he was going to walk right into it. I whistled, waved my arms, shook the side of the blind, and he just looked at me and kept coming. On later reflection, I realized I should have stood up, waved my arms, and yelled at him while I still had some distance,
but I didn't want to spook every deer with in 5 miles.

This bear obviously saw me, he watched me as he (completely at ease) strolled towards the blind. When he got to about seven or eight FEEt away, I said to myself "Fuck this" and brought up my 7 x 57 rifle, and flicked of the safety. At that metalic sound he went still, and looked at me. I spoke for the first time, looking at him over my rifle. "Now fuck off" He looked for a second, turned, and strolled away, still completely unconcermed. I should have fired one at his freet to spirit him along, but did not.


I didn't was to shoot the SOB (obviously), but these things are geting too bold. Not hunted enough, IMHO.

 

[the caracal kid]

I make noise colpy. Most encounters have kept us at least 200 feet apart. I have only had one real close encounter. Bearspray is not as good as the companies would like one to believe. If the bear charges you, you have a few seconds to draw and spray, and even at that it may just piss him off AND give him the scent to follow to find you.

Grizzlies have always worried me slightly more than blacks but my real "worry" is actually cougars. I have only encountered 3 cougars and none of them were interested in me, fortunately. Cougars almost make me want to carry a knife.