My mistake, 1993. The Cease Fire was in 1991. It should have been Unconditional Surrender, but kind of Black RINO Colin Powell talked RINO Bush 41 out of doing what was necessary to actually WIN the War.
It’s hell being an old White guy in Obamaville. The mind can’t take the stress.
I wouldn’t blame it on Powell. We followed precedent set by previous “police action” wars. You can trace it back to Korea, where the war was all but won before Chinese poured over the border. We didn’t want to expand the war into China, nor even admit we were at war with China. They hung MacArthur out to dry for thinking of it like a regular war. Which is a good reason not to fight a war at all, I’d think, if you aren’t fighting to win. Indeed we didn’t win the Korea.
Vietnam is the other big contained containment war. We couldn’t invade North Vietnam, mist likely for the exact same reason as last time, i.e. we didn’t want a war with China. We feebly fought against the supply train on the international Ho Chi Minh trail. Nixon couldn’t even bomb neighboring Cambodia without getting an earful about expanding the war. Not that the “mad bomber” strategy was worthwhile, but what is the point of fighting a war if the other side can expand it and you can’t? It’s like playing poker with a guy who has cards up his sleeve. Gentlemen would point it out and make an effort to stop the cheating or not play. We took the not play option by leaving South Vietnam for dead, which made the whole thing ultimately pointless.
Iraq, Part I was similar. We didn’t want wider conflict. We wanted to rebuke the outlaw and reverse the invasion, no more. There was no China, so I don’t know who it is we were afraid of. Maybe just afraid of the cost, in dollars and PR, and the responsibility. Whatever it was, we fought in line with our POST-WWII policy of limited war for limited gain. Powell was only one in a crowd of conventional wisdom.
By the way, I don’t believe in unconditional surrender. Almost not at all, but certainly not as a rule. Limited war for limited gains is an admirable way to fight. But only so long as the objective us worthwhile and the limited means are enough. If not, it’s useless. Which is not to say we should’ve gone all out and nuked China or Iraq, even if there weren’t other powers to discourage us.