Bush Sr.'s reasons for not taking out Saddam in '91

[deanerk]

Haven't seen this brought up yet here. From Snopes:

Former President George Bush wrote that trying to eliminate Saddam Hussein during the Gulf War in 1991 would have "incurred incalculable human and political costs."

http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/gulfwar.asp

As stated there, if only Dubya could read...

[The Don]

Incalculable for Dubya is anything beyond three....

[tamiO]

Shortly before the war, GW's dad also made a public speech advising his son not to go to war.

[DrChinese]

Originally posted by tamiO
Shortly before the war, GW's dad also made a public speech advising his son not to go to war.

Jr. didn't see it. He was watching the 3 Stooges that day.

BTW, I think Sr. made the right call in 1991 and he should never go back on that decision.

[a_unique_person]

That doesn't explain, though, why they initially encouraged the Iraqi's to rebel, then refused them any aid, so that Saddam could slaughter them all. The US has shown no fear in having proxy wars fought on it's behalf, no matter what the price in human life and suffering. This time, in perfect conditions that could have had Saddam quite easily toppled, there was a sudden and inexplicable change of mind.

[Judith]

No administration seems to have understood what people over there really want, including the current one.
I think it's obvious they don't want us there, and democracy just doesn't spring up like magic.

There were deals I bet, going back to Carter and carried on through Reagan and Bush. Iraq was our friend because Iran was our enemy.
It hit a little too close to home. Especially wouldn't want to contradict any policies of King Reagan.

[Ziggurat]

Originally posted by Judith

There were deals I bet, going back to Carter and carried on through Reagan and Bush. Iraq was our friend because Iran was our enemy.
It hit a little too close to home. Especially wouldn't want to contradict any policies of King Reagan.

I find it amazing that people think that we could be so Machiavellian and unprincipled and yet somehow not be willing to turn on former allies when they obstructed our interests (as Saddam undeniably did in '91). It does not compute. There is no hidden reason for not taking out Saddam beyond what was stated at the time, and no conspiracy theories to the contrary make any sense, *especially* if the US was trying to be nefarious.