George H.W. Bush had this to say in a 1998 Time article, when asked why US/UN forces didn't go after Saddam Hussein after Iraqi forces were pushed out of Kuwait in the Gulf War.
"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."
Seems like besides running the CIA and being a one term president, Bush Sr. was a a fortune teller, for his own kid.
2007-05-08
20:07:38
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