It was significant to me at the time. When I heard HW Bush was going to break his pledge, I started screaming at the radio about what a fool he was, and how there was no upside to doing this, and it would cost him the next election.
I had the same response when I heard that George W Bush was going to allow Paul Bremmer to disband the Iraqi army and purge Bathe party members.
I realized that the most dangerous component of Iraq's population was the Sunnis who had been in power, and who had managed to subdue the larger Shite population. I interpreted this information as them being smarter and more ruthless when stirred to action, and so I thought they would be exactly the people whose cooperation you would want in stabilizing Iraq. They were the more dangerous of the two populations.
I thought the better methodology to deal with the Bathe party in Iraq (Basically all the Sunnis) would have been to borrow a page from the Allies when they set up provisional governments in Germany after WWII.
The basic approach was to inform everyone that anyone responsible for war crimes would be hung, but rank and file Nazi party members would be left alone if they caused no more troubles. They could keep their jobs.
The point was to secure cooperation from people who would otherwise fight and sabotage you if you didn't give them a reason to support reconstruction.
If we did this to stabilize Nazi Germany, and it worked effectively, then why would we try the opposite approach in Iraq? It was just stupid, and I couldn't understand how all those "War College" graduates in the Officer corps couldn't see what to me was quite obvious.
I think the bombs started going off three days after Bremmer made his announcement. I think in the first wave of bombings, they blew up a UN representative, and this effectively sidelined much of what would have been international support for the provisional government.
The whole thing was an all too avoidable disaster.
Paul Ryan and Ditch McConnell are completely worthless.
This was a huge FU from them to Trump.
For example, in Trump’s submitted Budget, Trump cut US Dept of Ed by 3.5 Billion. This Bill increases Ed by 4.5 Billion and kills or underfunds Trump’s choice programs.
That’s a 8 Billion swing just for Dept. of Ed.
Many in Congress are already back in their Districts. So, I doubt he will Veto this and shut down the government.
This is a Chief of Staff problem, Kelly is lost and does NOT know Congress and its maneuvering. Gingrich would be perfect and would stand up to Ryan and McConnell.