George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography - Get a Free Blog

eloquent of all. In addition, the Bush administration was lobbying in Congress during this
week in opposition to a new round of Congressional trade sanctions against Iraq. Iraqi
capabilities to take Kuwait were now in place, and the Bush regime had not reacted.
On July 25, US Ambassador April Glaspie met with Saddam Hussein, and conveyed a
highly misleading message about the US view of the crisis. Glaspie assured Saddam
Hussein that she was acting on direct instructions from Bush, and then delivered her
celebrated line: "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflict, like your border
disagreement with Kuwait." There is every indication that these were indeed the
instructions that had been given directly by the chief agent provocateur in the White
House, Bush. "I have direct instructions from the president to seek better relations with
Iraq," Glaspie told Saddam. According to the Iraqi transcript of this meeting, Glaspie
stressed that this had always been the US position: "I was in the American embassy in
Kuwait during the late 1960's. The instruction we had during this period was that we
should express no opinion on this issue and the issue is not associated with America." [fn
32] Saddam Hussein illustrated Iraq's economic grievances and need of economic
assistance for postwar reconstruction, points for which Ms. Glaspie expressed full US
official comprehension. Shortly after this, April Glaspie left Kuwait to take her summer
vacation, another signal of elaborate US government disinterest in the Kuwait-Iraq crisis.
According to the Washington Post of July 26, Saddam Hussein used the meeting with
Glaspie to send Bush a message that "'nothing will happen' on the military front while
this weekend's mediation efforts are taking place." The mediation referred to an effort by
Egyptian President Mubarak and the Saudi government to organize direct talks between
Iraq and Kuwait, which were tentatively set for the weekend of July 28-29 in Jeddah.
Over that weekend, Bush still had absolutely nothing to say about the Gulf crisis. He
refused to comment on what Thurgood Marshall had said about him and his man Souter:
"I have a high regard for the separation of powers and for the Supreme Court," was
Bush's reply to reporters. (Attorney General Thornburgh said he was "saddened" by
Marshall's comment.)
According to the Washington Post of July 30, the Saudi government announced on July
29 that the Iraqi-Kuwaiti talks, which had been postponed, would take place in Jeddah
starting Tuesday, July 31. The Kuwaiti delegation abruptly walked out of these talks, a
grandstanding gesture obviously calculated to incense the Iraqi leadership. On the
morning of July 31, the Washington Post reported that the Iraqi troop buildup had now
reached 100,000 men between Basra and the Kuwaiti border. At the Penatagon, when
spokesman Pete Williams was pressed to comment on this story, he replied:
I've seen reports about the troops there, but we've never discussed here numbers or made
any further comments on that. I think the State Department has some language they've
been using about obviously being concerned about any buildup of forces in the area, and
can go through, as we've gone through here, what our interests in the Gulf are, but we've
never really gotten into numbers like that or given that kind of information out. [fn 33]