No Gulf War?

Well, no Saddam invading Kuwait would mean no US Troops in Saudi Arabia, hence, no Bin Laden going to war with the USA. We'd still have the WTC, the USS Cole would be undamaged, Islamism would still be around, but less prominent. The US's reputation would go up in the Arab/Muslim world. Iraq would be richer and better armed. Oil prices would be lower.

Those are just off the top of my head...
 

Bearcat

Banned
Probably nuclear rivalry between Iraq and Iran though. Hopefully that would become a semi-stable thing like India-Pakistan, but its always possible that Saddam gets there first and decides to preempt the Iranians.

Avoid that and this TL should be a better place, I think. The Kurds are screwed, though.
 
A thought: Remove Saddam from the equation, though it is I suppose arguable some other leader would do the same thing. my 2 cents
 
Well, the general shape of the world (US the Big One, China going capitalist, the USSR collapsing) won't be affected by no Gulf War. However,

1. Saddam will have an atom bomb sometime in the 90's.

2. Much Israeli freaking out, possibly going open with it's own nuclear arsenal and buying an old nuclear sub or two from China or Russia to maintain MAD. Rumsfeld drops Saddam from his rolodex, and the US government suddenly notices Iraq is a Dangerous Rogue State and not Our Kind Of People at all.

3. Quite possibly US troops end up in Saudi Arabia _anyway_ to act as a deterrent at the request of a nervous Saudi monarchy. In any event, US support for Israel may be enough to get Bin Laden to decide to make a high-explosive statement in any event.

4. Or perhaps Bin Laden tries his hand at overthrowing the corrupt Saudi government, which most likely ends with him dangling from a meathook in a Saudi prison. People rejoice, or would if they knew what a pain he would be in other TLs.

5. George Bush senior leaves office with an even lower reputation than OTL, without the Liberation Of Kuwait to his credit, and possibly preempting Bush the Second's presidential career.

6. Various countries (China, Russia, etc.) are slower to modernize and streamline their military forces than OTL, without the object lesson of seeing on 24-hour television Soviet hardware being utterly PWNed by the new US army and air force.

7. "Vietnam syndrome" remains stronger, and the notion that the US can easily walk into any third world nation, smash their armed forces like the proverbial house of cards, and overthrow their government, does not take root to the extent it does OTL. (Recall many supposed experts were all worked up about how bloody and difficult it would be to dislodge Saddam before the actual fighting started).

8. Saddam does something stupid. The man always had a megalomaniacal streak, and now he has nukes. He's probably not crazy enough to play nuclear chicken with Israel or drive the US to frothing madness by invading Saudi, but he might go after Kuwait after all. Or fight another war with Iran to a triumphant conclusion.

9. The Iranian nuclear program goes into overdrive, and definitely is about weapons production this go around.

10. Assuming we still get a moderate democrat or even a reasonable republican in the White House in the 90's, Iran and the US might actually kiss and make up in the face of a common problem.

11. If no Bin Laden attack on the US, quite possibly the Taliban continue to impose their horrible regime on the people of Afghanistan (the Iranians hate their guts, but are unlikely to try to overthrow them while they have a nuclear-armed Iraq to worry about).

Bruce
 
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