GOOD DREAMS AND BAD DREAMS

Consider this. In 1991, Saddam Hussein will still be securely in power in Baghdad (forget all the nonsense about his exasperated colleagues overthrowing him). He will have withdrawn from most but not all of Kuwait which will be returned to a humbled Sabah family. The United States and the Western powers will have reduced their military presence but not evacuated the region entirely since Washington has decided that the Gulf is now, for all intent and purpose, an American protectorate. Nobody in the Arab world will thank them for the effort, though the Saudis and the smaller Gulf states will be mutely reassured that the United States is there as an insurance policy.