Kuwait remains a key to the U.S. ability to act militarily in the northern Persian Gulf region now that all U.S. forces have left Iraq. Kuwait was pivotal to two decades of U.S. efforts to end a strategic threat posed by Iraq because of its location, its role as the object of past Iraqi aggression, and its close cooperation with the United States. Kuwait's relations with the post-Saddam government in Iraq have warmed significantly in recent years...