Rand Paul: “How did the 20-year war get started? It had been long assumed that the United States Government, shortly before Iraq…”

“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.”