Did Saddam have any such leanings before the First Gulf War?
Either we should have never got involved over there, or else once we did, we had no choice but to take Saddam out. We got the worst of both choices with Bush I.
“Did Saddam have any such leanings before the First Gulf War?”
He had jetliners parked in the desert for training terrorists on how to hijack civilian airliners. How’s that a fit for “leanings”?
We’re talking about the Middle East here. The rules are fluid and no one has real allies. Any agreements between Arab states are illusory, as in temporary arrangements. The only sure thing among those nations is a knee-jerk fear of chaos.
The U.S. had a treaty with Kuwait. If they were attacked, we would respond. They weren’t just attacked; they were invaded, pillaged and sacked by Iraqi forces.
The U.S. led a coalition of 40+ nations to remove Saddam’s forces from Kuwait and send them back to the Iraqi heartland. None of the surrounding Arab nations wanted him, Saddam, removed due to a resulting power vacuum in their midst.