Make no mistake--I'm no Clinton fan either--but George Sr. ALSO had a chance to get rid of Saddam, the FIRST time, in the Gulf War. But he didn't, saying something about it being wrong to kill national leaders or something.... Nor would he even let the Iraqi people (Shi'ites, Kurds, other dissidents) do it for him, when Saddam was most vulnerable after the airstrikes were over....
Let's hope the son has the balls to do what the father balked at....
I completely understand that general feeling... a lot of people had it. And our gut told many of us one thing ("Let's roll in to Baghdad and wipe them out")... yet our brain and honor told us another (We had a very specific international agreement, and America was not acting unilaterally!).
The irony is that if we had acted unilaterally (and thus been freed to do whatever
America wanted to do), the war would have been far far more difficult and expensive from the outset, and would have alienated many moderate nations around the world to this day! IMHO, it was one of Bush Sr.'s most difficult personal decisions.
Bush and all of us were disappointed that we didn't "happen" to kill Saddam in the natural course of the Gulf War. The combination of an honorable man (Bush Sr.) and a nation of rules and honor (America) made it impossible to follow the gut instinct. Else a small unit would have been inserted and removed not only Saddam, but his inner circle.
But yes, America acted with integrity and honor, and did
what it agreed to, and kept it's word to the coalition. America kept it's word when so many international leaders were publicly sure that America was not capable of eliminating "mission creep"... and equally sure that America would betray the Coalition and continue the ground war into Baghdad. But they were wrong. And Bush Sr. disproved the adage that "absolute power corrupts absolutely"... In Jan-Apr 1991, America
had absolute power in Iraq... indeed, in the Middle East. Yet America kept its word, and acted with honor and restraint. The irony was that the vanquished was in office longer than the victor.
A lasting effect of America keeping it's word in the Gulf War is that many foreign national leaders around the world know the
character and high integrity of the people around Bush Jr., and there is an implicit trust that never existed with most members of the marginally competent and generally untrustworthy (from a foreign perspective) Clinton Administration.
So in the long run, the success of the Gulf war coalition, and the return of honorable people into America's Department of State, has laid the groundwork for an alliance or coalition in the coming conflict.
BTW, if Bush had been in office for another 4 years, several things later changed in the Middle East that would have allowed us to return and, in essence, finish the job. It is of course just speculation at this point, but my bet is Bush Sr. would have taken the opportunity to relieve Saddam of a nation
.
If you recall, one of the engraved invitations was Saddam's attempt to Assassinate George Herbert Walker Bush... Clinton threw a few cruise missiles in and said "shame on you Saddam". Remember, America is not honor (or agreement) bound
never to invade Iraq... that was a temporary consequence of the Gulf War Coalition, and we can now invade at any time -- albeit with certain international objections.
Let me point out another thing. Many nations, such as France, have not kept up the Embargo. Leaks in the Embargo are largely what props Saddam up year after year.
In basic terms, within two years of the end of the Gulf War in April of 1991, some nations began helping Iraq privately. When the Clinton Administration took over, it was open season, and the Coalition began to disintegrate. Warren Christopher was a lauging stock overseas, especially among national leaders. I was there... I watched it... I won't name nations, but I saw leaders shake this hand, then snicker or grin when he moved to the next person. Part of my job was State Department and Presidential support, and was able to bear witness to this stuff.
That said, Warren Christopher was not the best representative, and by far not the best choice of Secretary of State, for America. But for those that remember 1993, the Clinton Administration did very little right, especially selecting the caliber of people that acted in it's behalf. I'm not hacking on Christopher in particular... the word is "incompetent" for thousands of no-name officials, many of who I had the displeasure of meeting and working with.
So we missed many opportunities to legitimately "get" Saddam with Honor throughout the 1990s. It now seems we have another legit opportunity to nail him, and this time do more that launch a few Cruise Missiles.
Nor would he even let the Iraqi people (Shi'ites, Kurds, other dissidents) do it for him, when Saddam was most vulnerable after the airstrikes were over
I flew many humanitarian missions in support of the Kurds and others in Iraq. If the dissidents had been able to overthrow Saddam in an internal revolution, we would have been in in a heartbeat to shore them up. We were ready, and hoping. Literally. Now that said, I do have one big problem with one of Bush Sr's actions that is a "real" issue no matter how you slice it. Bush Sr. delegated the surrender details to Colin Powell and Norman Swartzkopf. Literally at the surrender table, an Iraqi aide (no, I was not at that event myself
) asked Swartzkopf for permission to fly helicopters in the
No Fly zone. It was granted, with the explicit agreement that it was for peaceful purposes because of the damaged Iraqi infrastructure. What actually happened was that many helicopters were armed, and Saddam used them to suppress (kill) his own people in many areas. Even though they technically had "permission" to fly the choppers, we should have clamped down and stopped all Iraqi flights in the no-fly zone. In 1994, we had another opportunity to do so, and failed to act.
EDIT#1: Added paragraph.
EDIT#2: Fix the quote boundaries damaged when the older threads (like this one) were transferred to the new vBBS.
). After all, the bleed air is only about 800 degrees C... and that should warm things up, hehe...
