[Mb-civic] GEORGE H. W. BUSH ON IRAQ

[TSawyer456 at aol.com]

In his memoir, "A World Transformed," written five years ago,
Former  President George H. W. Bush wrote the following to explain why he 
didn't go  after Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War.


"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 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."


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