Iraqi Oil

[kandrathe]

Alright, let's get something straight here. The Gulf War, as successful as it was, was not even close to being a textbook campaign. Baghdad was left pretty open, and a textbook campaign would have shown troops rushing in, taking over, and demanding peace. Why didn't they do this? At the time, it wasn't a 'not important / not a goal' issue with the regime. They were afraid of the results of Saddam falling from power.

Also, most of our coalition partners lost their stomach for driving into Baghdad. Most importantly, Saudi Arabia said, "Ok, that's enough." So, Bush Sr. figured we had acheived the liberation of Kuwait, and defeated the Iraqi army, so we could now show our humane face and win the moral victory as well. No one in the Bush Sr. administration thought that with that level of devastation of the Iraqi regime, that Saddam could hold onto power. We made a mistake in the armistice agreement to allow Iraq to fly their helicopters, which allowed them to crush the uprisings in the north and south. Then during the Clinton years, we let victory slip through our fingers by allowing Saddam to re-arm, bypass sanctions, and essentially use that armistice for toilet paper.