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President Bush acknowledged for the first time on Thursday that he had miscalculated post-war conditions in Iraq, the New York Times reported.

The paper quoted Bush as saying during a 30-minute interview that he made “a miscalculation of what the conditions would be” in post-war Iraq.

But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency was the unintended by-product of a “swift victory” against Saddam Hussein’s military, the Times reported.

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In the Times interview, the president also discussed the issue of North Korea and Iran’s nuclear ambitions, saying that he would not be rushed to set deadlines.

The newspaper said “Bush displayed none of the alarm about North Korea’s growing arsenal that he once voiced regularly about Iraq.”

It quoted him as saying about the leaders of North Korea and Iran: “I don’t think you give timelines to dictators.”

Reuters/MSNBC

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I wonder what the real reason is that Bush wanted war.

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key members of the Bush administration including ... Jeb Bush.

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Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged | 

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In 1998, former President George Bush and Brent Scowcroft, National Security Advisor during the Bush administration, collaborated on the book A World Transformed, a political history covering significant world events which occurred during the first three years of Bush's presidency (1989-1991): the collapse of the Soviet empire, the unification of Germany, Tiananmen Square, and the Gulf War.

In Chapter 19, which discusses the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War (also known as "Desert Storm," the military operation to liberate Kuwait from occupation by invading Iraqi forces), they wrote:

FROM THE BOOK:

Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream, engaging in "mission creep," and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible. We had been unable to find Noriega in Panama, which we knew intimately. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting it in anger and other allies pulling out as well. Under the circumstances, 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. It would have been a dramatically different — and perhaps barren — outcome.

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Posts: 1862 | Registered: Mar 2000  |  IP: Logged | 

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But he insisted that the 17-month-long insurgency was the unintended by-product of a “swift victory” against Saddam Hussein’s military, the Times reported.

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But was it really a "swift victory"? Just what are the insurgents in the first place?

[ August 28, 2004, 12:41 AM: Message edited by: Synesthesia ]

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I may not be the most eloquent, but I learned early that eloquence won't draw oil from the ground. I may sometimes be a little awkward, but there's nothing self-conscious in my love of country.

I am a quiet man - but I hear the quiet people others don't. The ones who raise the family, pay the taxes, meet the mortgage. I hear them and I am moved, and their concerns are mine.

1998 RNC Convention

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