[uncommonsense]

We declared neutrality regarding border disputes - which to Saddam sounded like "go ahead and roll those tanks across your southern border". Saddam had 2 grievances - 1) the UN carved Kuwait out of Iraq and didn't compensate them 2) Kuwait was using horizontal drilling to over produce from an oil field that was mostly in Iraq territory.

After Saddam was given what looked like a green light, he rolled into the UN enclave of Kuwaiti - where the people were so rich, they didn't know how to do their own laundry and thus had to hire Iraq's.

Bush went "heeeeeeeehhhhh" (big rut-ro sound) - then he built the world's largest air force base in Saudi Arabia. Viola, the US now has a colossal footprint in the ME. Neat how that worked out.

[Cronos]

I think the building the airforce base in Saudia was a mistake