April Glaspie shakes hands with Saddam Hussein

As my understanding of Middle East politics and history sharpened, I began to understand, the almost laughable conclusion that in 1990 Saddam Hussein “believed that he had U.S. approval to invade Kuwait.”  But carefully examining the situation, it seems almost plausible. One can sum up Saddam Hussein’s misconception of the consequences of the invasion of Kuwait with his Iraqi troops as, culture filters perception. Two groups of people, communicating with each other, using a common terms, but filtered and interpreted completely different. Certain events in the history of Middle East relations with the United States and specifically the person whom Saddam Hussein communicated with apparently led the Iraqi leader to feel that he had a free pass to invade Kuwait. Continue reading →