Welcome, newbie!
Posted on 08/13/2007 11:42:23 AM PDT by in pari delicto
Here is the transcript. The YouTube address is at the end. *
Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?
A: No.
Q: Why not?
A: Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.
Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's government, then what are you going to put in its place? That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off: part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it -- eastern Iraq -- the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years. In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of Turkey.
It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.
The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146 Americans killed in action, and for their families -- it wasn't a cheap war. And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?
Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.
(Excerpt) Read more at mediainfo.com ...
IBTZ
Right, because Bush I was dedicated to the idea of a new world order where we were tied to the dictates of the UN forces.
When we finally did go in, we didn’t go in alone.
And welcome to Free Republic, by the way.
Cutting and running will still result in a bloodbath. Hindsight's 20/20, newbie.
/jasper
Ever heard of 9/11? It was in all the papers.
Interesting video, since, like, 1994 was just yesterday, and nothing major has happened since then..
Oh goodie. I was just getting a little bored.
Bring on the kitties.
Q: Do you think the U.S., or U.N. forces, should have moved into Baghdad?
A: No.
Q: Why not?
A: Because if we’d gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There wouldn’t have been anybody else with us.
Yep, ‘at that time’ he was correct.
More nations supported our invasion of Iraq this time around than supported Desert Storm as I recall.
Roosevelt wanted to stay out of the European front in WWII, but the situations changed when Japan attacked us, it showed that the war was international. On top of that, he had to ally with Stalin in order to defeat Germany.
You make an excellent point: geopolitical realities never change from minute to minute. The world is exactly the same now as it was yesterday and things were no different in 1993 than they were in 2003.
Bingo! Welcome to FR in.
Let loose the kitties!
More nations supported us this time.
More importantly Pakistan and Saudi Arabia supported us fully this time.
Additionally, Hafez Assad died - which means that Syria did not intevene on Hussein's side, broadening the war.
Additionally, Turkey was busy trying to negotiate its way into the EU, and was not going to intervene in northern Iraq, broadening the war.
All in all, conditions in 2003 were radically different - and the need to act was far more pressing than in 1993.
All in all, conditions in 2003 were radically different - and the need to act was far more pressing than in 1993.
Thats how I see it.
Not relevant to the situation in the 21st century though.
Try again later.
So what? Having Syrians and Egyptians on our hind flanks as we tried to invade Iraq would have been a recipe for disaster and despite our overwhelming numbers could have lead to a global war in the middle east.
Timing is everything, this time we didn’t invite the Muslims to join us there fore we protected our troops from some unfriendly friendly fire.
In pari delicto - Member Since Aug 13, 2007
I smell ozone.
Right, because it was only a matter of time before there was a mushroom cloud in a US city.
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