Iraq’s brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein, was certain that his armed forces – the fourth largest in the world and equipped with large quantities of sophisticated Soviet armor – would make short work of any rescue force that came to liberate Kuwait. He wagered that the Americans would lead a military response against Iraq but that, as he famously quipped, America was “a society that cannot accept 10,000 dead in one battle.” He was confident that after the Americans had suffered a few thousand casualties, they would sue for peace on Iraq’s terms.