So why did the Bush administration fail to signal harsh consequences to Saddam if he tried to take Kuwait, and why did Saddam fail to anticipate the American-led war of liberation that would follow? In Washington, the main problem was that the Bush administration remained committed to improving relations with Baghdad, hoping against hope. In pursuit of this policy, Presidents Reagan and Bush pulled their punches when Saddam gassed his enemies. Saddam saw what he could get away with, and this surely influenced his calculations about Kuwait in 1990.
