What if Saddam Hussein foresaw the strong international reaction to his planned invasion of Kuwait and in a effort to keep himself in power, does not go through with it, thereby negating the Gulf War?
Where does Perot fall here?HW Bush's poll numbers fall faster than OTL. Even without the spike in Oil prices that were caused by the Iraqi invyof Kuwait, the '90-'91 recession will still be there and the broken tax pledge will get more attention than OTL. Thus, his re election chances are even slimmer and he loses to a Democrat who is not Bill Clinton (a lot of heavyweight Dems sat the '92 race out due to the success of the Gulf War, this won't be the case in TTL).
The new kind of media coverage of the Gulf War was a huge big factor in the rise of CNN in the 90s and 24 hour news networks generally. With no Gulf War these developments are more gradual.
We also still have Vietnam syndrome well into the 1990s. That was our first major military undertaking since then. (Reagan, in spite of his warmonger cowboy reputation, preferred funding proxy wars to direct involvement.)
OBL isn't butthurt about the Saudis hiring us instead of him for protection. But he might cook up another excuse, so butterflying away 9/11 is a possibility, not a definite.
I would say at best the same as OTL.Where does Perot fall here?
A settling of accounts between the US and Iraq is inevitable-war or some sort of regime change will happen by 2010.
We also still have Vietnam syndrome well into the 1990s. That was our first major military undertaking since then. (Reagan, in spite of his warmonger cowboy reputation, preferred funding proxy wars to direct involvement.)
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didn't US support for Iraq evaporate after the Iran/Iraq War? IIRC, most of our support was intelligence, and we stopped giving it when the war was over...what account ?? ... the POD is in 1990 before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
In case you have forgotten (or never know) at that time the USA was pretty much supporting Irag.
Caveat: This was more a case of "my enemies enemy" than real trust.
in the 1970 the USA did not like the fact that Iraq bought weapons from the Soviets and helped Palestinians.
By the 1980s the USA had providing support to Iraq in its war against Iran
and stopped protesting its support for the Palestinians
didn't US support for Iraq evaporate after the Iran/Iraq War? IIRC, most of our support was intelligence, and we stopped giving it when the war was over...
yes, during the war, the US backed Iraq, but that wasn't really my question... didn't the help pretty much disappear after the war? During the war, the US regarded the idea of Iran conquering it's way around the Gulf with horror, so it's hardly surprising they backed Iraq. But this thread is about what happened after that, and doing away with Desert Storm...No to all your assumptions
During the Iran-Iraq war the US supplied Iraq with many tangible assets including "non military aircraft".
the US removed Iraq from its self appointed list of sponsors of terrorism and resumed full diplomatic relations in the midst of the war.
The US then instituted Operation Staunch - an attempt to interdict third party sales of arms to Iran, but with no corresponding efforts aimed at Iraq.
And its military actions were very partial towards Iraq. Compare the almost non existent US reaction to the Iraqi strike on the USS Stark in May 1987 with its enthusiastic attacks on Iran following damage to a US Merchantman in October 87.
Not forgetting the murder of flight 655 in July 88 from a warship clearly in Iranian waters - a fact initially denied outright by the USN and US government.
Once the ceasefire was brokered the US state department ignored Iran and began offering aid in repairing the ravages of the war only to Iraq.
No invasion of Kuwait? Saddam has nuclear weapons by the end of 1991 and by the end of the following year, much of the middle east would have been nuked. By him and the Isrealis.
We also still have Vietnam syndrome well into the 1990s. That was our first major military undertaking since then. (Reagan, in spite of his warmonger cowboy reputation, preferred funding proxy wars to direct involvement.)
OBL isn't butthurt about the Saudis hiring us instead of him for protection. But he might cook up another excuse, so butterflying away 9/11 is a possibility, not a definite.
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