What if Saddam takes it further or gets peace?

[Emperor Joshua]

I read that, during the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein deployed about 100,000 troops for the initial invasion of Kuwait and an additional 600,000 troops in the following weeks/months (about 700,000 troops in total!). It seems like that would have made Iraq the fourth strongest military in the world (following the United States, Russia, and China). Just for reference, there were only two times in their history that any one European nation deployed that many men: World War 1 and World War 2. I also read that Kuwait had only about 16,000 men, with most of them being on leave at the time of the invasion. This allowed Saddam to easily take Kuwait in just under 48 hours. His generals apparently told Saddam that they could continue on to launch a successful invasion of Saudi Arabia due to the Saudis having a smaller army (many of whom, just like the Kuwaiti military, were on leave at the start of the Invasion of Kuwait). From here, I have two questions:

1. What if Saddam Hussein had decided to order his men to invade Saudi Arabia and/or any of the other Gulf states after he had conquered Kuwait in two days? How far would he get? Would doing so exacerbate or soften the Coalition response? Could he actually get the United States to agree to sit down and negotiate with him (as their new chief ally in the Middle East, preferably) if his gains are big enough?

2. Is there anything (military or non-military) that Saddam could have done at any point before, during or after the Invasion of Kuwait that would have allowed him to solve his grievances with Kuwait and/or the Saudis without getting destroyed by the Americans?

 

[jhenderson 20]

Logistics mean that the Iraqis cannot go much further than Kuwait... maybe they enter Saudi Arabia a bit but they aren't going far.
Saddam's army doesn't have the ability to supply an army far from home. There is oil everywhere but that doesn't mean vehicle fuel. Moving food and ammo depends upon trucks which Iraq has few of in miltary service. Something else: water. August is very hot in the Gulf and there is no drinking water. That has to be trucked far and wide for Iraqi soldiers.
Logistics cripple any Iraqi move.

 

[SealTheRealDeal]

Anything worth hitting on that axis of advance is beyond Saddam's logistical reach. There are some Saudi population centres near the Iraqi border to the northwest, but shifting the army away from Kuwait/Eastern Province would be a dangerous proposition, and if they did it would pretty clearly telegraph Iraq's intent to Saudi Arabia.

there were only two times in their history that any one European nation deployed that many men: World War 1 and World War 2.

And the Franco-Prussian War