Much of the recent rhetoric amounts to just that - what does it mean? Time and media propaganda has caused us to lose sight of why we are there. Does anyone remember the first Gulf War when GHW Bush threw Saddam out of Kuwait, a country he had illegally invaded? Does anyone remember how we kicked Saddam's Republican Guard's ass? Does anyone remember that in order to save himself Saddam begged for a cease fire? Does anyone remember that George H. W. Bush agreed because the MSM was highlighting the way we were destroying the Republican Guard in their retreat from Kuwait in what the MSM called the shooting gallery?
Unfortunately, Bush left the details to Gen. Schwartzkof (sp ?) and he allowed Saddam to keep hjs helocoptors although there was a no fly zone imposed. Saddam used the helicopters to suppress the general uprising by the people that President G.H.W. Bush encouraged. The Kurds in the North were slaughtered and the opposition in the south was also. The defeat of the popular uprising was the fault of Schwartzkov, no one else.
After that Saddam continually violated his ceasefire agreement. He kept trying to use aircraft to suppress opposition, he interfered with and eventually expelled the UN WMD inspectors. He violated all the agreements he had made to save his ass.
Saddam also provided training facilities for al Qaeda terrorist and paid money to the families of the "martyrs" to encourage them to kill many innocents while they died for the cause.
Does anyone remember the mass graves with over 300,00 people we found after invading? Does anyone remember the rape rooms, the shredders, the torture chambers, we found. Does anyone remember that Saddam's sons would go to night clubs and select any woman they wanted, even the brides in a wedding party, to take and do with as they pleased? To think we did not do a great thing in Iraq is to be naive. Unfortunately, this administration is trying to give it all back.
Much of what you said is true... except the Republican Guard were not really in Kuwait. They were positioned well to the north & west so that they could act as a strategic reserve. Iraqi regular infantry forces were on the line in Kuwait & up on the Saudi border. They got slaughtered or surrendered en mass.
Much of the Iraqi Republican guard bugged out when they realized that the US & allied advance rolled right over their front line troops on the border without a hiccup. Had they attempted a counterattack they’d have been destroyed. A couple of the IRG divisions got badly mauled, but significant portions got away and were later reconstituted to fight the internal uprising.
GHWB’s cease fire was a huge mistake.