So we invaded a country because of oil, and the lie that we were going to be energy independent? How was our safety threatened?
No we invaded a country because we were locked in a bear hug with the ME tarbaby due to Bush 1 have meausre in Desert Storm. Bush locked the US into having troops on the ground in the ME in a forever ware to enforce the No Fly Zone and contain Saddam.
“Infidel” Troops that close to Mecca was a rallying cry for every wack job religous extremeist in the ME.
What Bush 1 should of done was taken out Saddam and then turned Iraq over to the UN and the Arab Legaue. Brought everyone home and had a gaint victory parade.
The Arabs and the UN would, of course, created a giant mess of Iraq just like the UN did in the former Yugoslavia. However that would NOT be the US’s problem cause we were back over the horizon not having troops actively involved on the ground. We can always project power into the ME, we should avoid being on the ground there for extended periods. Bush 1 screwed that posture up big time. 30 years later we still trying to recover from that mistake.