Actually, there was such a thing in the works in the late 1990s. Clinton tried to have the CIA guy who was going to coordinate the followup to Iraqs Intelligence Minister whacking Hussein prosecuted, and tipped him off, leaving the resistance to fry, and pretty much all of our intelligence assets in Iraq to get slaughtered. If you recall, in 1996, leading up to the election, Clinton and Albright were putting pressure on the inspection team not to inspect, as it would upset Hussein, presumedly because this would draw attention to their being a problem which Clinton wasn't willing to address.
If anything is unfair, it's that Clinton let Hussein get away with stuff for so long, and now he expects it.