Aside from the visible ugliness of the “Highway of Death”, there was another good reason to stop. At that time Gorbachev was trying to overthrow the old Communist/Soviet regime, but was about to experience a coup against him. Personally, I think we should have gone one about 24 hours longer, made a serious dent in the Republican Guard, but left enough of it to discourage Iranian aggression. And ended quickly enough to not get Gorbachev wiped out.
GHWB had gotten the UN on board and put together a multinational alliance -- IOW, the way the UN is *supposed* to work, but almost never does -- and accomplished the stated goal of ejecting Iraq from Kuwait. There was no mandate to remove Saddam Hussein. Had the "end run" proceeded as ordered, the entire Republican Guard would have been bagged before Saddam ordered the retreat.