Pacific Views

Listen to Your Father, W

"Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human
and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.... We
would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect,
rule Iraq....there was no viable "exit strategy" we could
see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had
been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression
in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus
unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have
destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that
we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United
States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly
hostile land."

George Bush, Sr. in his memoir, "A World Transformed", written more
than five years ago.

[excerpted by S.O.]

Posted by Norman at October 28, 2003 01:53 AM | TrackBack