just read this - wow moar intel coming to light every day - this is a good one NOTABLE imo
[Congressional Record: January 26, 2011 (House)]
[Page H503]
HOW THE 20-YEAR WAR STARTED
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, how did the 20-year war get started? It had
been long assumed that the United States Government, shortly before
Iraq invaded Kuwait in August of 1990, gave Saddam Hussein a green
light to attack. A State Department cable recently published by
WikiLeaks confirmed that U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie did indeed have
a conversation with Saddam Hussein one week prior to Iraq's August 1,
1990, invasion of Kuwait. Amazingly, the released cable was entitled,
``Saddam's Message of Friendship to President Bush.'' In it, Ambassador
Glaspie affirmed to Saddam that ``the President had instructed her to
broaden and deepen our relations with Iraq.'' As Saddam Hussein
outlined Iraq's ongoing border dispute with Kuwait, Ambassador Glaspie
was quite clear that, ``we took no position on these Arab affairs.''
There would have been no reason for Saddam Hussein not to take this
assurance at face value. The U.S. was quite supportive of his invasion
and war of aggression against Iran in the 1980s. With this approval
from the U.S. Government, it wasn't surprising that the invasion
occurred. The shock and surprise was how quickly the tables were turned
and our friend, Saddam Hussein, all of a sudden became Hitler
personified.
The document was classified, supposedly to protect national security,
yet this information in no way jeopardized our security. Instead, it
served to keep the truth from the American people about an event
leading up to our initial military involvement in Iraq and the region
that continues to today.