“Opposition to the long-time presence of Americans on the Arabian peninsula intensified dramatically after August 7, 1990, the day that the first U.S. troops were dispatched to Saudi Arabia as part of Operation Desert Shield. The dying edict of the Prophet Muhammad had been ‘Let there be no two religions in Arabia’; now ‘infidels’ of […]
Category: quotes
8/6/1990
On August 6, 1990, “Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney flew to Riyadh [Saudi Arabia] at the head of an American delegation and read out to King Fahd bin Adbul Aziz and the senior Saudi princes a message from President George [H.W.] Bush. ‘We are prepared to deploy these forces to defend the Kingdom of Saudi […]
8/6/1990
“The UN Security Council reacted swiftly with the imposition of sanctions and an oil embargo on Iraq…on August 6, 1990. These measures were linked to Iraq’s withdrawing from Kuwait. As…the reaction on the part of the United States became more explicit, Saddam gave a speech attacking foreign countries that occupied holy places.” – Charles Duelfer, […]
8/6/1990
On August 6, 1990, following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, “the United Nations Security Council voted to impose full economic sanctions on Iraq, stopping oil exports and prohibiting all imports except food and medicine.” – Karen DeYoung, Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell, Page 195 […]
8/5/1990
“On August 5 [1990], President [H.W.] Bush stepped off Marine One on the White House lawn and, referring to the Iraqi invasion, uttered the most famous words of his presidency: ‘This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.’ The spontaneous remark meant one thing: war.” – Craig Unger, House of Bush, House of Saud, Page […]
8/5/1990
Immediately after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in early August 1990, Osama bin Laden made an offer to Prince Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, to “use his family’s construction business to ring the border of Iraq with new fortifications and…supply thousands of Muslim veterans from the Afghan war to defend the oil kingdom. In […]
8/5/1990
“…after Saddam’s forces invaded Kuwait [in early August 1990], bin Laden immediately volunteered the services of his ‘holy warriors,’ who had recently returned from fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, to defend Saudi Arabia. The fact that bin Laden was willing to lead his own troops into battle against Saddam hardly suggested a desire to ally […]
8/2/1990
“…eager to pull Kuwait back into Iraq (the two had been separated by Great Britain in 1913), desiring of its vast oil reserves, and perhaps itching to demonstrate his own immense military power, Saddam Hussein launched the invasion at 2:00 a.m. on August 2, 1990. More than 120,000 Iraqi forces participated in the operation, including […]
8/2/1990
UN Security Council “Resolution 660, which demanded that Iraq ‘withdraw immediately and unconditionally’ from Kuwait, was passed 14-0-1 on August 2 [1990] with no real opposition (only Yemen, then occupying the rotating ‘Arab seat’ on the Security Council, abstained) and little delay.” – Richard N. Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice, Pages 60-61 […]
8/2/1990
“Intelligence sources believe it is ‘likely’ [future World Trade Center bomber Ramzi] Yousef was in Kuwait when Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces invaded the Emirate in August [2] 1990. Angry at the corrupt and racist Kuwaiti government, which treated guest-workers as second-class citizens, Yousef–like many Palestinians in the country–is believed to have aided the Iraqi invaders.” […]