Bush Sr's accurate prediction

[Michael Eisenstadt]

Beverly,

Moore's letter pales in comparison to the Bush senior quote
from his 1998 book justifying his 1991 Iraq war that you just
forwarded me.

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"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 
cumstances, 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." 

Mike