[Pan_Yan]

The link to this article is under to words the go ahead in the section titled Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Kuwait. It is about 4/5 of the way down the page.

[Cicero]

I should add that it's very hard to conceive why Bush would have given Saddam permission to go ahead. At the time it was clear that Saddam's real goal was Saudi Arabia. He would have knifed right through Kuwait and taken over the Saudi oil fields if we hadn't intervened.

For that reason, the most credible explanation is that April Glaspie simply didn't make it clear enough to Saddam that he would not be allowed to invade Kuwait. Usually the job of an ambassador is to get along with her hosts. Plus Saddam was a megalomaniac who may well have misinterpreted her warnings because they were not explicit enough. He has always thought that he was destined to conquer and rule.