On the anniversary of Kuwait’s invasion … dangers remain

These days, memories are being revived of August 1990, when Saddam Hussein’s regime invaded Kuwait and plunged the Gulf into the greatest danger it had faced up to that point. Was that invasion a surprise? Perhaps in terms of its timing but not in terms of its ideological and political roots. Hostility toward the Gulf monarchies had long been embedded in the political discourse of the Baath Party. Likewise, the expansionist ambitions of the Iraqi regime had already become evident through its war with Iran and its attempts to establish itself as the dominant power in the Gulf.