Not sure what this guy’s point is. Bush I had faults but Desert Storm was not one of them. The buildup to Desert Storm was basically flawless as wars go. He handled the whole thing very well. However he cashed his chits in too soon after the initial victory. He decided to bail out without going into Baghdad. Going into Baghdad would have involved some real loss of lives. So he stopped where he did. With hindsight of course it proved to be a mistake.
Still - he gets credit for taking the proper action to kick Sadaam out of Kuwait. Carter or Clinton wouldn’t have done it. Had he taken care of business is similar fashion on domestic and other matters he might have fared better as a President. So he did one thing well but that was about it.
I think you are wrong about your assumptions. As a result of Desert Storm oil prices dropped to a low of under 20 bucks/bbl. Back in the day, the problem was too low oil prices. Governments can’t make enough taxes that way. We didn’t want Iraq’s oil going on line.
Our policy has always been about price supports for oil. I think it’s because we militarily own the Saudi and Emirate oil and gas fields. We have the world’s single largest known asset on our balance sheet. We don’t want that gig to run out too soon. It’s the thing that keeps the rest of the world in line. We can cut em off whenever we get sick of it all.
He isn’t faulting Bush - he’s faulting Democrats at the time & the coalition of countries that agreed to work with us, but then put the brakes on before we could go after Saddam & finish the job.
“He decided to bail out without going into Baghdad. Going into Baghdad would have involved some real loss of lives. So he stopped where he did. With hindsight of course it proved to be a mistake.”
You are correct, it was a mistake, but it was the sort of decision where if he made it the other way, other mistakes would have been made, and he’d have gotten the critiques far worse.
For example, we didnt know he had a nuke program until a bit after the war. We didnt know his position was precarious and he could have been toppled easily, etc.
We do too little, and bad guys live on to cause more trouble. We do too much, and we ‘own’ the messes of the world. GHWBush knew the limits of American power and avoided the kind of ‘entanglements’ that his son ended up getting into, forced to finish the job left unfinished in 1991. Life has its ironies.
Is this what passes for an article in that paper? I’ve seen better vanities on FR.
He had no authority to “go to Baghdad” and the coalition would have crumbled. That’s nothing but Monday morning quarterbacking and hindsight.
His actual FAULT was listening to that idiot Powell and didn’t wipe out all of their forces leaving Kuwait (the diseased Colin thought it looked bad kicking the enemies butt) and then allowing Saddam to keep military hardware he used to punish his people after we left leading to no-fly zones.
Bush 41 was a failure and moron. Hell, how else could he lose to a frat boy?