Misapprehensions on both sides due to both Diplomatese and Taarof are more than probable (which is why both create many problems...). No question, as I said, that Saddam was going in regardless. We'll likely never know what was in Glaspie's or Saddam's mind. Pretty much irrelevant in any event.
What I did learn in the ME is that little is as it seems, far more so than is the case in Asia and still more than in the west which is not blameless in that regard.
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