Bush Then and Now

Authored by Michael Pate on November 2nd, 2003 at 9:58 PM

Trying to eliminate Saddam… would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible… We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq… 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. - George H. W Bush

I had been planning on doing some research on this for some time and found that it had been done for me. A nice succinct quote. And absolutely true.

George Bush gambled that by not remaining in Iraq and eliminating Saddam in 1992 that things would work out okay. Unfortunately, he was wrong. Saddam had eleven more years to inflict his Reign of Terror on innocent Iraqis, organizaze his forces for a long guerrilla campaign, play games with witless UN inspectors, and strengthen his ties with the growing worldwide terrorist threat.

George W. Bush did not take on the task his father passed on. He took on a task infinitely more difficult. And infinitely more necessary.