The United States continues to take plenty of blame at home and abroad for the current crisis in the Persian Gulf. Nevertheless, if the works of Butler, Trainor, and Mylroie are any example, there is plenty of blame to go round. In The Greatest Threat, Richard Butler (2000) maintains that that if blame is to be lobbed, it should land in the direction of the United Nations Security Council and nations using the Persian Gulf to exploit the crisis to their own ends, most notably Russia, China, France, Iran and North Korea. In The GeneralsÆ War, Michael Gordon (1996) places the blame closer to home. In particular, he posits SaddamÆs staying power and ability to develop weapons of mass destruction on poor decision-making during the first Gulf War. Generals Powell and Schwarzkopf were so cautious and eager respectively, that the war ended too soon to truly undermine HusseinÆs power. These attitudes, coupled with the Bush administrationÆs policies, left SaddamÆs Republican Guard largely in tact, though the war was considered a swift and decisive American victory.
In The War Against America Mylroie (2001) claims that Saddam Hussein is primarily to blame for his own present woes, while lack of swift and sure response to terrorist attacks on the United States have emboldened him and terrorist cells throughout the world. She claims that the first World Trade Center attack in 1997 left a trail that pointed to one nation û Iraq, ôWhile the initial blame had been pinned almost exclusively on the al-Qaeda network, there are many clues that point to a more powerful co-conspirator; the government of Iraqö (Mylroie, 2001, p. 2).
Butler (2000) blames the current scenario in the Persian Gulf on SaddamÆs pattern of ôcheat, retreat, and cheat againö with respect to disarmament. Further, he maintains that the actions of China, France and Russia on security resolution 1134 emboldened SaddamÆs confide
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