jetcloud

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

'Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of
Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in
midstream, engaging in �mission creep,' and 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. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs
deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under those
circumstances, 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. It would have been a dramatically different--and perhaps
barren--outcome.'


George H.W. Bush (The ELDER) and Brent Scowcroft,
A World Transformed (1998), pp. 489-90