That's why he attacked the Iran and then thought he can attack Kuwait. He ran into a trap.
No, that was plain stupid of him in both cases. Howerver he stayed in power afterwards. What more would a dictator want?
Where he screwed up was playing an idiotic cat and mouse came with the UN weapons inspectors. If he indeed did not have any WMDs then why pretend that you do by trying to screw the inspectors around?
He provided the excuse for his own downfall.