Over a decade ago, on a fateful night for this region, the then U.S. ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie was summoned for a midnight meeting with Saddam Hussein. It was July 25, 1990 and she had been serving in Baghdad for over two years and had never had an encounter with the Iraqi ruler.

At the end of the meeting - the first half of which is reported to have been taken by a diatribe by Saddam Hussein recounting his services in protecting America's friends and interests, and his perceived subsequent betrayal by both his Arab friends and the United States - April Glaspie was asked a critical, and rather straightforward question by Saddam. The question had to do with U.S. policy regarding an Iraq-Kuwait dispute that had topped the headlines for days.

"I have direct instructions from my government to inform you that we have no opinion on inter-Arab disputes, such as your current dispute with Kuwait," Glaspie had responded.

The meeting - which had been surreptitiously recorded on Saddam's orders, with a transcript made available to the media in the following months -- had taken place at a time when the CIA had told the Bush administration that Saddam's forces - estimated at three to four mechanized and armored divisions -- resembled a "loaded gun, pointed at the direction of Kuwait, cocked, with the finger on the trigger," concluding that Saddam certainly had the means to invade his neighbor within a few hours if he so wished.

Therefore, to be given the green light by the U.S. ambassador made Saddam euphoric. After the full-fledged support that America had provided him after his calamitous invasion of Iran, and the ensuing eight-year war, Saddam seemed convinced that the US was grooming him for the job of regional power and bully to safeguard the oil riches of the region. If he had any doubts, there were removed three days later, when on July 28, 1990 - just a few days before his August 2, 1990 invasion of Kuwait - the then Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and in response to a question about the impending hostilities in the region said: "I can unequivocally confirm that we do not have a mutual defense treaty with Kuwait."

With such words in his ears Saddam gave his generals the order to cross the border and thus, with explicit American approval, proceeded to embroil the region in a catastrophe whose aftershocks are still felt today.

When on January 16th of the following year, fire and steal began to rain down on him, he still did not seem to comprehend that he had been trapped by the United States in a dirty scheme to cut him down to size militarily.

Saddam had been given just about every inhuman and illegal weapon man had ever invented, and he had shown no compunction in using them - mustard gas, sarin, VX, and other chemical weapons among them - and he was on his way to acquire nuclear weapons as well. He had used these weapons in his war with Iran and on his people in the Kurdish region and had done so with impunity.

Now the region seems on the verge of a second catastrophe in two decades, and the cast of characters in the United States who are pushing for war is strangely the same, or closely related to those who were responsible for the immense human tragedy which befell the region over a decade ago.

At the time, George Bush the father was president - after having been a strong proponent of arming Saddam to the teeth during his time as Vice President to Ronald Reagan - and Colin Powell Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Dick Cheney, Secretary of Defense.

Now they are back, overexerting themselves, trying to find an excuse for a new war. As with the old one, this one too is about oil, power, and money as it has always been with American policy in this region.

However, in light of news reports on the last few days that the United States helped Iraq with its battle plans in its war with Iran and fully aware that Saddam was gassing Iranian soldiers whenever he could, and that Bush the son has invoked Iraq's development of chemical weapons as during its war with Iran as justification for war with Iraq, one has to wonder how stupid do American leaders think people are? Of course, Iranians were quite certain that Saddam's war crimes are being committed with U.S. knowledge and support, but the American-dominated media mafia would not permit these ugly facts to be given credibility and coverage. Today, we witness alarm bells going off in Europe, Japan, Russia, and just about all Arab capitals, intent on resisting an unabashed American grab for Middle East oil and ill-gotten booties which a war might bring to the oil men of the White House, which these days seems to have a large sign at the entrance reading : "All who enter, check your consciences at the door."