Hey Freepers. Send this to your boy.

[texastoast]

But first, you will have to teach him to read.

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 had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. 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 the 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 Herbert Walker Bush from his memoirs, "A World Transformed"

[Ducks In A Row]

1. it's too bad junior refused to learn from daddy's mistakes

so many people would still be alive.

[LuminousX]

2. Honor Thy Mother and Father

If only Bush would have followed the 10 Commandments.

H.W. was smart enough to know what would happen if he got into Iraq fully. Why he didn't impart this wisdom on his son is beyond me.

[Myrina]

3. 'unable' to find Noriega ?

or unwilling, since he was on the CIA/BFEE payroll ??

:shrug:

[texastoast]

7. Right you are

Spin, spin, spin.

[GiovanniC]

4. Borrowed His Dad's Station Wagon

And crashed it into the globe.


Courtesy of MoDo.

[Macadian]

5. Kind of ironic......

.. that Bush I was defeated partially because some people were not happy Saddam was left in power, and Bush II will be defeated because people are not happy he took Saddam out!!

[texastoast]

6. I don't think many are unhappy Saddam is out

but I do think they are unhappy with the bulldozer way shrubito did it. I think they are unhappy because he has now imperiled the citizens of this good nation in the eyes of the world. I wish he had listened to his dad and his own Methodist clergy, but no.