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Well, DO -- I believe that Gulf War One was a mistake.

Saddam was terrorising the Iranis
The Jihadis hated him and he killed them mercilessly
The Gulf absolute monarchies feared him and he kept them in check
Ultimately he would not have been able to stand up to Turkey and/or Egypt, so there was a natural limit to his powers

If Bush senior had not gone into Gulf War One then

Saddam would have got jiahdis like Al Qaeda etc. fighting him for threatening Wahabbiism - remember that Saddam was evil, but he was a secular evil dictator and the Wahabbis hated his ilk
He would have taken the money from the re-absorption of Kuwait and used it to continue the war with the Ayatollahs and this time probably won -- or at the least have bled the Iranis so badly they would not have time or money to focus on threatening anyone else
Have cowed the Saudis into giving him more money for him so less money going into madrassas across the Moslem world teaching Wahabbiism and spreading the message of jihad
Pushed Assad into more of an accomodation with Israel and possibly with Turkey

I’m not convinced your scenario plays out the way you think.

Did Hussein need Kuwait’s wealth? I don’t think so.

It had it’s own oil reserves and didn’t even use them to their full potential.

I think this was a power grab. I think he had his sights on more than Kuwait, and I’m not thinking Iran. I think he wanted the entire Arabian Peninsula.

If you look at the Saudi Arabian nation, it’s not that heavily populated. You take out the capital and you pretty much control the nation. Was that his plan? I don’t honestly know. Was Kuwait him testing the waters? Perhaps so. Perhaps not.

With a guy like Hussein, he doesn’t mellow out and get less dangerous. He and his sons were almost demonic people.

You know, as I write this I think of the people of Iraq. They have had to deal with Hussein, his sons, the war, the peace, and now ISIS.

These are people who are living what some folks want the U. S. to be like. They aren’t attacking other nations now. They don’t have a massive military machine. They are minding their own business, trying to make a life for themselves.

Now this. If there’s anything to be learned from all this, it’s that sitting around in your own nation minding your own business isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I wouldn’t fault us on Iraq.

I would very much fault us for not going to war with Mexico to end the invasion.

That’s what needs to end. We also need to keep our forces on station around the world, or we become exactly what the Iraqis are today.

Let’s say the U. S. does pull back from everywhere and just stay within it’s borders. Do you think for one second the Left in the U. S. would be satisfied with that?

You know, or should, that the Left will not stop until we don’t have one person in uniform.

We need to hold our ground where we are, or lose it all.

IMO, Hussein had his eyes on the whole of the