In his memoirs,
A World Transformed, written more than five years
ago, George Bush, Sr. wrote the following (page 489) 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 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.
If only his son could read ...
Submitted by Tom Parker – "I got this via an email circulating
around the Internet. I then went to the library, got the book,
and verified that the quote is indeed accurate, noting that the three
"..." sections indicate omission of only some non-essential wording
that doesn't affect the meaning."