I was in Saudi Arabia (1987-1992) during the entire Gulf War and went up to Kuwait two days after the war was over amidst the burning oil fields and the "Mile of Death." The coalition we formed to displace Saddam from Kuwait had a limited mission. There was no desire by the coalition to take down Saddam. Scowcroft made that quite clear. Powell ended the war a few days too early when we had the ability to eradicate the Republican Guard.
And yes, it would probably have needed some of our boys to stay and keep the peace. But still better than keeping our boys in Saudi Arabia trying to enforce a no-fly zone on an embittered Saddam and minions...while the Islamic fundamentalists went nuts...
We would have had to take Saddam out first. And how many of "our boys" would have been required to keep the peace in 1991?
Iraq was NEVER a separate whole country, but made up separate nations and then distinct provinces of the Ottoman Empire when the British carved it out into one country in 1921.
It was a separate country in 1991. In terms of its colonial history, Iraq was a state longer than most of the countries in Africa . The number of countries in the world have more than doubled since the end of WWII and there are plenty of separatist movements that could add to those numbers including in Europe. We are devolving into worldwide tribalism fueled by multiculturalism. Iraq could certainly split into different countries, but how involved should the US be in determining the outcome?
Well, we know what actually happened.
We know we had to keep American troops in Saudi Arabia post to enforce the No-Fly Zone. That in itself led to the Al Kiyda coalition against us. When you left Saudi Arabia in 1992 things changed, and for the worse. More Muzzies went over to Bin Laden BECAUSE we were there. Khobar Towers, Nairobi and Mombassa Embassy bombings, USS Cole, and then finally 9/11. How many were lost? And then, of course, Afghanistan and the Iraq Wars themselves.
All that took a lot of our lives and theirs. I'm only looking at the long march of history, and many of the wars, conflicts and brushfires of the world are in fact due to trying to make countries out of different peoples that might have been in a particular European power's colony, but should NEVER be a distinct country.
The mid east has always been a powder keg fueled by sunni/shia BS with the slightest deviation of religious belief sometimes enough to set off one tribe against another.
Oil changed it some but as we see the Saudis play both sides and have beefed up terrorists almost on a worldwide basis while buying millions in real estate in the US and funding almost every mosque that gets built. With the deep state/CIA doing what they do in Afghanistan and funneling drugs all over the world from Afghanistan to Pakistan for processing to Offutt AFB for distribution they have helped create a huge cluster that may never be healed. I don't see any way out of constant war and strife in the mideast,much of it brought on by the drug cartels, CIA, Illuminati.