"It wasn't a diplomatic blunder that gave signals to Saddam that we didn't care if they invaded Kuwait?"
I've never been comfortable with the claim that it was a diplomatic blunder that got us into the first Gulf War. Even "if" we assume Saddam misinterpreted the message by April Glaspie (i.e. the US has no opinion on Arab to Arab conflicts), the peripheral events leading up to Saddam's invasion of Kuwait should've convinced him that the US...and our allies, were not going to sit still as he invaded Kuwait.
People forget that Glaspie talked to Saddam in July...and while he invaded Kuwait in August, it was still almost 5 months from that point until the US/UN went to war with him. Between this period of time, the US and the Arab nations were heavily involved in negotiations with Saddam and were threatening him with sanctions (and then, war) if he didn't withdraw. If we supposedly wanted this war (as others claim), we sure did a lot of manuevering to try and avoid it, giving Saddam more than enough time to reevaluate his position.
One of the best indicators of this was that on the day of Glaspie's meeting with Saddam (July 25), he already has troops massed on the border of Kuwait. And it was even a day before this meeting...and a couple days following Saddam's threat of war, that the US is moving warships into the Persian Gulf as a public display of our displeasure over Saddam's rhetoric. For the next couple weeks, the US carried out war games, while the other Arab nations engaged in diplomatic meetings with Saddam to try and resolve the tension.
Again, even if we assume Saddam misinterpreted what Glaspie was saying, what was happening around him left no room for misinterpretation. There was no "green light" given or implication that this would be OK...and even Mabarak made that clear in his meetings with Saddam.
Timeline of events:
Spring 1990: Iraq beligerently complains about conspiracies by parties in the Gulf.
July 1990: Iraq names names...Kuwait and U.A.E. are conspiring against Iraq, Kuwait is "stealing" Iraq's oil.
July 24: Iraq masses 30-50 thousand troops on the border. U.S. moves naval forces into the gulf and suddenly conducts military exercises with the U.A.E., for the *world* to see.
*July 25: April Glaspie meets with Saddam Hussein. Tariq Aziz, ex-Foreign Minister (at the time) and current deputy Prime Minister later says unequivocally that Glaspie did not give Saddam Hussein a green light to invade (see below*).
July 25-26: President Mubarak of Egypt embarks on shuttle diplomacy to
solve the problem.
July 26: Kuwait and Iraq agree to meet in Saudi Arabia to discuss differences on August 1.
July 27: The U.S. begins publicized review of its policy toward Iraq in light of its aggressions and attempts at hegemony.
August 1: Iraq and Kuwait meet in Saudi Arabia, and "embrace warmly." Later, Iraq abruptly storms out of the meeting. A few hours later....
August 2: Iraq invades Kuwait
*May 31, 1991: After the war is over, Iraq's erstwhile Foreign Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz puts to rest the Glaspie controversy by saying that "Saddam Hussein did not believe that US Ambassador April Glaspie gave him a green light to seize Kuwait and expected a severe American reaction."
*Title: GLASPIE Didn't Give Green Light, Iraqi Says. Source: Boston Globe, May 31, 1991, 12:4. Abstract: "Iraqi President Saddam Hussein did not believe that US Ambassador April GLASPIE gave him the green light to seize Kuwait and expected a severe American reaction, according to Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz."
It should also be noted that Glaspie was called to testify informally before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She said she was the victim of "deliberate deception on a major scale," and denounced the Iraqi transcript as "a fabrication" that distorted her position, though it contained "a great deal" that was accurate.
In November 1992, Iraq's former deputy prime minister, Tarik Aziz, gave Glaspie some vindication. He said she had not given Iraq a green light. "She just listened and made general
comments," he told USA Today. "We
knew the United States would have a strong reaction."
This is information that I collected years ago from various sources on the internet. If something is not correct, please advice.