The Cold War and the Iraqi People

Saddam Hussein nationalized the Iraqi oil industry in 1973-74 and was deluged in a wave of wealth. The Bath Party, broadly an Arab nationalist party, was quite rightly renowned for being very, very brutal. He invades Kuwait in 1990 seeking to get himself out of a financial hole; that with spectacularly bad timing is when the Cold War ends. In February 91, George Bush Sr. encouraged Iraqis to rise up against their leader. We can't know what might have happened had America offered real support to the Iraqis who did rise up then.