No First Persian Gulf War

[tarrant77]

So I am reading up on the lead in to the first gulf war, and i came across this...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nayirah
Interesting stuff, started me to wonder if there would be a way where congress wouldn't give the authorization for it. There was actual opposition leading up to it, compared to this last one where there were almost none. any ideas on if it is realistic, and what would come up from it?

Say one of newsmedia gets this info before the vote, go from there?

 

[Anaxagoras]

Even if it had come out before the war, there would have been more grumbling from the anti-war side, but I still think Congress would have voted to authorize military action.

 

[Glen]

So your POD is that Iraq invades Kuwait, but the US does nothing militarily?

Might we see several years later an Iraqi attempt on Saudi Arabia? Saddam is the type to push his luck eventually.

 

[The_Leader]

What about perhaps a 2nd attempt at Iran?

 

[Jared]

What about perhaps a 2nd attempt at Iran?

I suspect he'd learned his lesson the first time. Or at the very least he'd wait quite a few years before starting again.

 

[DuQuense]

I think that when the Iron Lady sends the British Troops, the US would then agree and send troops.
This would make the 1st GW a British lead war.

 

[Shimbo]

I think that when the Iron Lady sends the British Troops, the US would then agree and send troops.
This would make the 1st GW a British lead war.

With all due respect to the British, I don't think that they would have tried or been able to take on Iraq on their own. The British Armed Forces have an glorious history, but they are short on numbers in the present day. The US deployed ten times as many troops to the Gulf as the British did. The British would have been incapable of deploying anything like that number of troops.

IIRC Mrs. Thatcher did argue strongly for a military response though, famously telling George Bush Sr not to 'go wobbly'. If the 'Nariyah' incident had been uncovered and hence Congress had refused to back the war, then I suspect a severe sanctions regime would have been likely.

But that would not stop the Iraqi bomb.

I could see an Iraq - Israel war as a consequence.