That’s partially accurate
Colin Powell advocated they would look like butchers to the world if they annihilated a thoroughly routed army in disorganized fully abandoned retreat
Schwarzkopf Cheney and Wolfowitz as well as all the lower field command advocated destroy the enemy and unconditional surrender
Bush Baker Major and Powell carried the day
The marsh Arabs and Kurds paid the price
“The marsh Arabs and Kurds paid the price!!”
They sure did and Schwarzkopf regretted the decision.
Bush the Elder was a foreign policy realist as were his advisers like the then clear-headed Brent Scowcroft.
The coalition forces he had assembled had the goal of driving Saddam out of Kuwait, not conquering Iraq. There was an option of destroying more of the Iraqi army while we were at it, but occupying Iraq was a utopian lunacy that would have to wait for his not so bright son and his neocon nation builders.
Wolfowitz and his civilian aides were people whom I know that the uniformed military were suspicious of. Cheney as Sec Def was saying that conquering Iraq would be a bad idea, I don’t know if that was because he believed it at the time or was explaining GHW Bush’s goal for the war. Schwarzkopf had war gamed and designed the battle plan for defeating the Iraqi army. Don’t know if he had voiced a strategic plan that would have included the mess of occupying a large Muslim country.