The First Iraq War was most likely caused deliberately by Olebush. The Kuwaiti contractors were using horizontal drilling to drill under the border with Iraq and sucking oil put of Iraqi fields. The Iraqis did not have this technology, which was American and proprietary. Saddam protested this theft of oil and Olebush had his ambassador April Glespie to tell him that "The US does not have a position on the borders between Middle Eastern nations". Saddam took this to mean that he could attack Kuwait and what the Hell, take it over, since it was historically part of Iraq anyway, which is what he did.
The world economy was in a slump at the time, and nothing pumps up an economy like a good war, so Olebush rounded up a whole bunch of allies and got them to pay the total cost of that war. It cost teh US nothing: the Kuwaitis paid an enormous amount to get their country back. Previously the King of Kuwait was jabbering about how he wanted to sell his oil in appreciating Euros rather than declining dollars, so this was payback time for his greedy Highness. The Japanese, the Saudis, and many others also ponied up funds to pay for this.
So why didn't Olebush go on and finish up Saddam? First, he counted on the Kurds to do it for him, but they failed. Getting rid of Saddam, who was holding a potentially explosive Iraq together was not part of the deal, and Olebush knew that if he did get rid of Saddam, the US would not get paid by the Saudis and Kuwaitis and others and would get stuck with the bill.
We have to remember that OleBush was Director of the CIA, and the CIA is expert at dirty tricks precisely of this nature.