I don't really believe that there have been any wars fought "to rescue people", although the claim that that was being done has certainly been made on numerous occasions. ;-) Wars are normally fought for the most pragmatic of reasons, truth be told, and have nothing to do with rescuing anyone.

Does it occur to you, Kendall, that both Saddam and/or the North Koreans may have been deliberately misled by those "mixed messages" that were sent by America? When you would like to fight a war, you need an excuse for it. If you can trick the other side into providing you with a really good excuse, so much the better!

Saddam had passed his point of usefullness for the USA when he failed to defeat Iran. The USA wanted a strong military presence of their own in the Middle East on a permanent basis. They needed a good "reason" to go there. Saddam's attack on Kuwait would give them that reason. What to do? Well, trick Saddam into thinking he had a free hand to attack Kuwait. Then when he did, turn him overnight into the next "biggest threat to the world" and go in full force into the Middle East to fight him. And then never leave.

"Gotcha!" Mission accomplished!