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To: af_vet_rr
I think it was about doing what should have been done in '91

There is a lot of truth in that, I think. One problem here is that to most in the West, the Gulf War was "over" in 1991 because our governmental/legal apparatus said so. The problem was, we were still (a) blockading that country, (b) occasionally bombing that country, and (c) basing some troops in a neighboring country to protect against continued offensive moves.

By most rational standards, that's called a "war".

And the assumption that Saddam wouldn't have seen it that way because WE thought the war was "over", according to our legalistic definitions, is quite odd. The idea that Saddam would have taken blockading and bombing his country in good humor, and made no attempts to do something in response, is downright bizarre.

In fact everyone acknowledges that part of his attempt included waging a propaganda campaign designed to shame the West into dropping the sanctions because they had killed (precisely) 500,000 Iraqi babies.

People who complain that we launched a 2003 final offensive against Hussein should also take into account that if we hadn't done that, he was most likely going to win that propaganda campaign within a couple more years, as even the facade of sanctions dropped away.

After that point, it would not have been incorrect to say that Saddam would have defeated the US in the war between that nation-state and his, since (again, assuming we hadn't invaded and then the sanctions regime fell apart) he would have emerged unscathed, and in power, and in full possession of the oil assets of that country.

What he would have then done with the proceeds of those oil assets, and with no sanctions to constrain him, and given his hatred of the US and his reported desire for revenge, and given his powerlust and desire to rule over a pan-Arab state, I shall leave up to peoples' imagination. Speaking for myself, I am rather glad we did not wait around to find out.

117 posted on 02/05/2004 1:52:52 PM PST by Dr. Frank fan
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To: Dr. Frank
There is a lot of truth in that, I think. One problem here is that to most in the West, the Gulf War was "over" in 1991 because our governmental/legal apparatus said so. The problem was, we were still (a) blockading that country, (b) occasionally bombing that country, and (c) basing some troops in a neighboring country to protect against continued offensive moves.

I believe that some people (the media among others) deliberately forget that the war in '91 did not stop, it just went into a pseudo-standby mode. We've bombed and killed plenty of Iraqis between '91 and '03.

For a while I felt sorry for the Iraqis, everytime a new Clinton scandal came up, some had to die. Am I tacky/cold-blooded for saying that? Probably. Is it the truth, yes.

118 posted on 02/05/2004 1:59:48 PM PST by af_vet_rr
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