We tried to pressure the newly reinstated Kuwaiti government to reform following the Gulf War, with limited success. Now they're slightly more progressive than other nations in the region but that ain't saying much. I think that even if some Iraqis resent us for meddling in their affairs that would still be better than what we've done for the past decade, which is to wait and hope endlessly for some mythical Iraqi hero to topple Saddam and liberate the people, and we've enforced well-intended sanctions on the Iraqi regime which unfortunately serve to provide Saddam with a convenient excuse to oppress his people and blame outsiders for it.

I figure we'll make promises to Russia and France that they'll get first dibs on the oil contracts in a post-Saddam Iraq, and then they'll shut up and let the USA and the UK take care of long overdue business...