Posted by Desert Rose on 3/11/2006, 11:11 am, in reply to "Re: Agree or disagree?" Here is an excerpt from what Bush Senior had to say after the Gulf War. Everything he said would happen, has happened. "While we hoped that popular revolt or coup would topple Saddam, neither the U.S. nor the countries of the region wished to see the breakup of the Iraqi state. We were concerned about the long-term balance of power at the head of the Gulf. Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those circumstances, furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-cold war world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps barren--outcome."
It was entirely Bush's huge ego, greed and arrogance that led to the invasion of Iraq nothing more. He was advised by a lot smarter people than he is not to invade and the reasons why. He father had better sense, he know what would happen. GW just plain didn't care. And then he also had war hungry and greedy Runsfeld and Cheney hounding him to invade Iraq even if they had to make up stuff and lies to sell the war to the American people.
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