The first international crisis of the post-Cold War era culminating in war. A timely and indispensable guide to the underlying issues, interests, and passions that erupted in the world's post-Cold War Conflict.

Includes maps of: [Gulf Region].

An introductory note -- Roots of conflict -- Imperial legacy / Phillip Knightley -- Lines in the sand / Glenn Frankel -- Oil : the strategic prize / Daniel Yergin -- U.S. intervention in the Middle East : a case study / Micah L. Sifry -- From rapid deployment to massive deployment / Joe Stork and Martha Wenger -- American hubris / Theodore Draper -- Iraq vs. Kuwait : claims and counterclaims / Walid Khalidi -- The rise of Saddam Hussein / Judith Miller and Laurie Mylroie -- The Iraq lobby : Kissinger, the Business Forum & Co. / Joe Conason -- What Washington gave Saddam for Christmas / Murray Waas -- Prelude to war -- Kuwait : how the West blundered / The Economist -- Realpolitik in the Gulf : a game gone tilt / Christopher Hitchens -- U.S. senators chat with Saddam (April 12, 1990) -- The Glaspie transcript : Saddam Meets the U.S. Ambassador (July 25, 1990) -- Nightmare from the thirties / Charles Krauthammer -- The U.N. resolutions : the complete text -- Iraq's occupation of Kuwait : excerpts from Amnesty International's report (December 19, 1990) -- Why Some Arabs support Saddam / Walid Khalidi -- The Geneva meeting (remarks of January 9, 1991) / James A. Baker 3d, Tariq Aziz, George Bush -- The letter to Saddam (January 9, 1991) / George Bush -- Washington prepares for war / Elizabeth Drew -- Intervention and escalation : the debate -- In defense of Saudi Arabia (speech of August 8, 1990) / George Bush -- Saddam's next target / A.M. Rosenthal -- Washington's "vital interests" / Thomas L. Friedman -- If my Marine son is killed / Alex Molnar -- The Hitler analogy / William Safire -- Have the neocons thought this through? / Patrick Buchanan -- EnGulfed / Andrew Kopkind -- The myth of Iraq's oil stranglehold / Doug Bandow -- Taking international law seriously / Michael Kinsley -- The need to negotiate / Jimmy Carter -- The need for an offensive military option (speech of November 8, 1990) / George Bush -- On the Gulf and Middle East crisis / National Council of Churches of Christ -- Give sanctions a chance (testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, November 28, 1990) / William J. Crowe, Jr. -- How to cut Iraq down to size (testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, November 28, 1990) / Henry A. Kissinger -- How close is Iraq to the bomb? (testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, November 30, 1990) / Gary Milhollin -- The drift to war (testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, December 5, 1990) / Zbigniew Brzezinski -- Sanctions work : the historical record / Kimberly Elliott, Gary Hufbauer, Jeffrey Schorr -- The obligation to debate (speech of January 4, 1991) / Tom Harkin -- White slaves in the Persian Gulf / Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. -- The case for intervention / Stephen J. Solarz -- A return to Cold War thinking (speech of January 10, 1991) / Daniel Patrick Moynihan -- Authorization for Use of Military Force (Joint Congressional resolution of January 12, 1991) -- Agencies of disorder / Edward N. Luttwak -- Who wants another Panama? / Barbara Ehrenreich -- A just war? / Michael Walzer -- The use (and abuse) of the United Nations / Noam Chomsky -- The liberation of Kuwait has begun (speech of January 16, 1991) / George Bush -- The mother of all battles (speech of January 20, 1991) / Saddam Hussein -- Is this any way to wage peace? / John E. Mack and Jeffrey Z. Rubin -- Toward a difficult peace movement / Todd Gitlin -- The forgotten war / Robert Massa -- Hymn for the unsung / Ariel Dorfman -- The illogic of escalation (statement of February 9, 1991) / Mikhail S. Gorbachev -- Bombing Baghdad : no cause for guilt / Charles Krauthammer -- Top gun party / Colman McCarthy -- Iraq is ready to deal (radio address of February 15. 1991) / Revolutionary Command Council -- A cruel hoax (speech of February 15, 1991) / George Bush -- Soviet peace proposal (February 22, 1991) -- Why Moscow wants to save Saddam / A.M. Rosenthal -- The ultimatum (statement of February 22. 1991) / George Bush -- Criteria for withdrawal (statement of February 22,1991) / Marlin Fitzwater -- The first casualty -- How the media missed the story / James Bennet -- A muzzle for the press / Sydney H. Schanberg -- Free to report what we're told / Robert Fisk -- What is there to hide? / Walter Cronkite -- Television and the instant enemy / David Halberstam -- Briefingspeak / George Black -- The agony of the Middle East -- The crisis of the Arab world / Fred Halliday -- The bitter fruits of war / Rami Q. Khouri -- The decline of pan-Arabism / Bernard Lewis -- A few of our favorite kings / Dilip Hiro -- In the wake of "Desert Storm" / Scott MacLeod -- The Palestinians and the Gulf crisis / Rashid Khalidi -- War and peace in Israel / Robert I. Friedman -- On linkage, language, and identity / Edward W. Said -- Pax Americana redux -- Kuwait is liberated (speech of February 27, 1991) / George Bush -- Onward Christian soldiers / Lewis H. Lapham -- A false dream / Henry A. Kissinger -- The Pentagon's new paradigm / Michael T. Klare -- Why we need to police the world / Anthony H. Cordesman -- What will this war mean? / Marcy Darnovsky, L.A. Kauffman, Billy Robinson -- More likely a new world disorder / William Pfaff -- What a wonderful war / Robert Scheer.