[aruanan]

Absolutely. I'm afraid that a fair share of the blame for the current crisis must be laid at the desk of GHWB for his failure to finish the gulf war.

Why stop there? Why not blame G-d for having created a world that led to a Saddam in the first place? It would make about as much sense.

As much as you would have liked the US to invade Iraq, don't forget history. The Gulf War had a coalition of forces. The premise for the coalition was to remove Iraq from Kuwait. It wasn't to remove Saddam from Iraq. Perhaps it should have been, but then, that's not what the coalition agreed to. If the US had exceeded the terms of the agreement, it would make the possibility dim of being able to put together something like that in the future. People are reluctant to trust those who don't stick to the terms of an agreement.

[Uncle Fud]

We could not rely on a "coalition" to do what had to be done then, and we should not rely on one now.