What I wrote at Lib Dem Voice

October 20, 2006

George Bush proved right about Iraq

That's George HW, the 41st President, rather than George W, the 43rd... speaking on 28th February, 1999, to 200 Gulf War I veterans:
"Had we gone into Baghdad - We could have done it. You guys could have done it. You could have been there in 48 hours. And then what? Which sergeant, which private, whose life would be at stake in perhaps a fruitless hunt in an urban guerilla war to find the most-secure dictator in the world? Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we're going to show our macho? We're going into Baghdad. We're going to be an occupying power - America in an Arab land - with no allies on our side. It would have been disastrous."

(Quoted in State of Denial (p.11) by Bob Woodward.)

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