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Peace Proceeds from Victory
Over at Q&O, McQ has posted some video from 1991 in which then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney explains why the United States didn't overthrow Saddam during the Gulf War. And to be fair, the first Bush Administration made what few would disagree was a rational decision. In The first Gulf War, Arab League forces made up 40%+ of the coalition's ground forces that pushed Saddam out of Kuwait. For all we knew at the time, these guys could have started shooting at our guys if we had moved on Saddam. We should also remember that the 1991 war was far more politically tentative here at home, with the Congressional authorization to go to war passing in the Senate by a single vote.
Still, I bet we can all agree that if Bush Sr. had gone in and knocked off Saddam, the 2003 war, approved by a Congressional super-majority, would have never happened, and there would be 3600 American soldiers and countless Iraqis still alive today as a result.
With 20/20 hindsight, it's now obvious Bush Sr. should have secured at the get-go a commitment from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, et. al. to finish the job. in 1991 we had virtually destroyed Iraq's entire military, there was no Saddam Fedayeen, Al Queda was in it's infancy, Muqtada al Sadr was eleven years old, and there were hundreds of thousands of Iraqis Saddam had yet to slaughter who most likely would have helped us.
As much as I'd love to say "oh well, live and learn," unfortunately I can't, because frankly it's still an open question whether we've learned anything from allowing Saddam to remain in power.
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