Bush Sr. knows best...

[IrishHand]

In his memoirs, A World Transformed, written 5 years ago, George Bush Sr. wrote the following to explain why he didn't go after Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War l99l:

"Trying to eliminate him could 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 had hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

If only his son could read.

Irish

[Clarkmeister]

Very nice.

What's really p1ssing me off is that every single fvcking day I wake up and on the front page of my internet news service is a new article detailing how another handful of US soldiers have been killed.

[Cyrus]

There's a big difference between Bush pere and Bush fils and that is that the senior was a genuine war hero while the junior was a damn coward. I submit that leaders who have experienced war first-hand and particularly in danger to their own lives (not as some well-protected staff officer in an air-conditioned HQ) are far, far better qualified to take decisions about beli.

But how to educate potential future leaders nowdays when wars become more scarce? Perhaps the solution is lots of small-scale wars. Perhaps the solution will present itself, forcibly. Perhaps we may make the transition yet from war-experienced wise leaders to peace-trained wise leaders (and this is the United States I'm talking about exclusively, the rest of the world having no business with needing war as part of the foreign policy).

In any case, today, the Dubya in the White House is out of touch.

[Bill Murphy]

Too bad Poppy didn't tell his ambassador to tell Saddam not to go into Kuwait in the first place. Remember all the miscommunication about "border dispute" beforehand?

The Iraqis were honestly surprised at our reaction. And you know what? We should've gone all Euro, wrung our hands & condemned in the UN, and then stood by and let him take SA, too.

Not like the oil would've stopped flowing, and he was hardly a friend of AQ, the Palestinians, or the mullahs in Iran. He only started going all "This is for Islam" and giving the $25K to suicide bombers families as a 'hearts & minds' thing.

Hell, isn't that why we put the sumbich in power in the first place? He wasn't anti-American; remember those photos of him & Rummy? Think there's a couple with Jim Baker, too.

I'd rather get shot in the back of the head than burned to death, so IMO Saddam(while a true monster) was preferable to the Saudis, ***ASSUMING WE'RE GOING TO BE INVOLVED IN THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE FIRST FVCKING PLACE!!***

As for the current war in Iraq, right idea(maybe), but wrong everything else. Needed all that money & manpower to go into the Paki/Afghan border. Tell Musharref will forgive all debt & drop sanctions if he goes along & also cracks down internally. Too late now.

And Christ on a teakettle, how the fvck did we squander the fact we HELPED the Muslims in agin the Soviets? Oh yeah, enemy of my enemy is my friend don't work in the Middle East, like American politicians remember history, can think long term or logically.

I believe Poppy'll whisper "Vietnam" enough that Shrub'll listen & pull out. Unfortunately, this'll be used by AQ as a victory a la Somalia which may lead to more 9/11's, etc.

American & Middle Eastern cultures are just too different, although all ME's who want to immigrant here certainly should be welcome. We & Europe needed to stay out, and just negotiate with whoever's in charge. Meddling's just brought nothing but grief, Carter's Camp David thing has only hurt, and the Jewish refugees from WWII would've been much better off here, and they would've made America better too.

I AM DONE FOREVER ON THIS TERRIBLE SUBJECT.

God help and forgive us all.

[ArchAngel71857]

So Clinton was good? Good thing we don't have Gore in the white house. Although I will admit, at least he was in Vietnam. Bush took the dangerous post of the Texas National Guard in case the Viet Cong ever invade Austin.

-AA