George Herbert Walker Bush 1924-2018, 41st President of United States of America
A lot of nice things are being written about the recently deceased 41st President of the United States of America, whereas in fact, he is responsible for setting the Middle East on fire - and probably deliberately so.
It was his Ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie who instigated Saddam Hussain to attack Kuwait by giving Saddam a message that Kuwait was drilling Iraqi oil in the disputed region by using angular oil rigs and that "if Iraq were to make minor border adjustments, U.S. will have no objection" i.e. a clear signal to launch an attack on Kuwait. Bush's intentions probably were that Iraq will threaten Kuwait by making border adjustment and U.S. will immediately land troops in Kuwait to occupy their resources and create a permanent base. What he probably did not anticipate was that Saddam will conquer Kuwait and head towards Saudi Arabia.
Glaspie giving advice to Saddam Hussain.
After the Arab-Israeli war of 1967, Saddam's predecessor severed diplomatic relations with the U. S. Saddam took power in 1979 and adamantly refused to restore those relations for years. But in 1980, the U.S. had the better of him when under Reagan Presidency, it encouraged Saddam to attack Iran, no doubt, the craftiness of George H. W. Bush, then Vice President was behind it. A disastrous war that lasted eight years with 1.0 million dead. Saddam's fateful mistake was to succumb to U. S. bait in re-establishing diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1984 which ended up taking his life.
In 1983, as head of CIA, George H. W. Bush organized a coup in Panama overthrowing the nationalist President and planting his own stooge Manuel Noriega, who was corrupt and a drug dealer. As soon as Bush Senior became President in 1989, he invaded Panama, kidnapped Noriega and locked him up in the United States - a first in recent history where a head of state was kidnapped by another state. He died in captivity in 2017.
Manuel Noriega 1934-2017
George H. W. Bush extensively used Bank of Credit & Commerce International (BCCI) in Iran Contra affair, in funnelling CIA money to various subversive groups in Latin America and in allowing Noriega a free hand in laundering millions of dollars with the help of BCCI as the bank's executives ferried Noriega's ill gotten and drug related money in private planes from Panama to Florida.
Whoever George H. W. Bush used while head of CIA, as Vice President or President eventually fell under his sword. The Bank of Credit & Commerce suffered such a fate as in 1991, when a phone call by George H. W. Bush to then Prime Minister, John Major saw the instant demise of BCCI within a couple of hours. BCCI was set up by the dashing Pakistani banker Mr. Agha Hassan Abedi.
Mr. Agha Hassan Abedi, the founder of Bank of Credit & Commerce International
Within a very short time, the bank arrived on the international stage and became the 7th largest bank in the world. But the egocentric Mr. Abedi ran the bank into the ground with multi-million dollar Treasury losses, money laundering and illegal loans and corruption. Had George H. W. Bush not shut it down in 1991, it would have eventually folded under its own weight.
So, despite all the nice eulogies being written, Mr. George H. W. Bush was a crafty man who initiated the events in the Middle East which have caused over 1.5 million deaths, created over five million refugees and maimed hundreds of thousands children. Had he not egged on Saddam Hussain to launch a war on Iran and subsequently invade Kuwait, both the first and second gulf wars would not happened and the death and destruction in Libya & Syria could also have been avoided.
Mr. George H. W. Bush was no saint.
