Internal strife happens in every country.
Kuwait is surrounded by Saudi Arabia.
Of course he's going to have troops by the border if Hussein is annexing Kuwait.
The Iraq-Kuwait problem was an oil problem--surprise. Kuwait was cross drilling into Iraq reserves. April Glaspie--the US diplomat--told Hussein that the US had no opinion on his annexation of Kuwait.
Pilfering is not relevant.
In all fairness, the middle east is a hotbed.
Kuwait & Iraq were allies in the Iraq/Iran war. The character of ally/enemy changes rather quickly there.
Iraq was no more a threat to the stability of the region than any other country there.
Israel has massacred the Palestinians, commandeered their land and choked off Palistine's commerce. Palestine has responded with attacks including suicide bombing.
I would argue that Israel's threat to the area dwarfed any from Iraq.
Anyways, if you look at:
the ongoing civil war,
the growth of Al Qaeda terrorism,
the tiny green zones of "safety" amidst
the demilitarized zones,
and the influx of Iranian influence into the area
I'd say Iraq is a tad bit more unstable than at any time under Hussein.
Decker you are sugarcoating Saddam and his brutal regime. Internal strife? Are you kidding? It was the torture and murder of Iraqi civilians by the Iraqi government. You call that stable?
So Saddam invades Kuwait and then begins massing his troops on the Saudi border and this is not evidence that he was going to invade Saudi Arabia? Give me a break.
A dictator pilfering his country's resources, resulting in many of the people living in poverty is absolutely relevant to whether or not the country is stable.
Iraq was at war with Iran for 8 years and this isn't evidence of instability in the region?
Are you actually trying to justify Saddam dropping scuds on Israel and sponsoring terrorism in Israel?
This is crazy. How can you look at what happened in that country in the decades before we invaded and conclude it was stable? Look at this story:
Inside Saddam's torture chamberBy Bill Neely
Basra, southern Iraq
Saddam Hussein's Iraq was a state of terror, and the security apparatus was at the heart of it.
As I walked into the secret police headquarters in Basra - which is now in British hands - I met former inmates and ordinary Iraqis had been terrified to come here until now.
The secret police building is now a bombed out shell
What was to follow was a horrific education in terror.
In the smoking basement of the bombed building was a warren of cells where prisoners had been tortured.
"People died, people were imprisoned without trial," one man told me.
We went further down, to cells that had no light and little air. They were covered with cockroaches and filth - and on the ground I saw a gas mask and bottles of chemicals.
One man said he had spent eight years inside, just for attending Friday prayers. He prayed too much and was seen as a dangerous radical.
But the secret police headquarters had more horrors to reveal.
One man whose relatives had been killed here said they had their hands tied behind their backs, and were left to hang from their arms for days on end.
Crying out
Saddam Hussein controlled Iraq through fear, torture and execution. It happened here to tens of thousands of Iraqis deemed dangerous by the secret police.
Former prisoners showed how they were interrogated
A man cowered for months, crammed with 300 others into a huge cell.
Hameed Fatil told me he was tortured, along with his two brothers who were executed, and re-enacted their ordeal.
Security officers kept record of prisoners. Their fingerprints are all that is left of them - apart from photographs of their interrogations.
To call all this a chamber of horrors is a cliche - and this place is beyond cliche. The hundreds or thousands that died here and were given no trial, no voice, cry out.
On the ground I found a book called the Psychology of Interrogation, as if the men who worked here needed a handbook.
On my way out I was glad of the fresh air and glad to leave - glad that I could.
No one knows yet whether the new Iraq will be the kind of place where children can grow up free of the fear, the horror of torture.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2930739.stm