Johnny Pixels
Graduate Poster
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2005
- Messages
- 1,389
Or you could accept the opinion of your president at the time:
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 the circumstances, there was no viable "exit strategy" we could see, violating another of our principles. 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 United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land. It would have been a dramatically different - and perhaps barren - outcome. Chapter 19, "A World Transformed", 1998, George H. Bush, Senior
A wise son listens to his father.
Important points bolded. Bush Snr talks about starting with the UN mandate and then extending it as the US saw fit. This would mean ad hoc planning, which isn't a good idea when it's unecessary and people's lives are on the line.
This is different from planning to remove Saddam from the start, and planning properly for it.