ABSTRACT
This chapter describes Saddam Hussein's motives for attacking Kuwait and the steps leading up to the invasion. Some events suggest the premeditated nature of the Iraqi assault on Kuwait. In all that has been said and written about why Saddam invaded Kuwait, insufficient attention has been paid to the role of oil. It appears more likely to have been an unprovoked act of aggression driven above all by the ambitions of one man, Saddam Hussein, and his relatively small coterie of sycophants and advisers. The Iranian Revolution of 1978-1979, the shah of Iran, backed by the United States, kept Iraq in check and limited Saddam Hussein's ambitions. Saddam Hussein began raising tensions with the West and Israel, generating an atmosphere in which the Gulf states were more susceptible to Iraq's pressure. His hope was to establish control over the oil on the Arab side of the Persian Gulf.
