ABSTRACT
The Reagan and Bush administrations protected Kuwaiti tankers and thus indirectly Iraqi oil and economic support, shared intelligence information about Iranian troop movements, and fought attempts by the US Congress to place sanctions on Iraq in response to its use of poison gas. The Iraqi government had trouble demobilizing its troops after the war with Iran because there were no jobs for them. The Iraqi leader may have believed they needed, at minimum, a new scapegoat, or, more ambitiously, a new military campaign to galvanize people. Robert Kupperman suggests several stronger alternatives, including open or covert military strikes against Iraq's chemical and nuclear weapons plants, or possibly a US-Soviet effort to coordinate "the total economic and diplomatic isolation of Iraq." The border dispute between Iraq and Kuwait would have to be resolved before the issue of aid or loans could be discusses.
