<In 1991 we were constrained by a multi-lateral alliance>
No, actually, we weren't. Bush1 made it clear that he was going to act (to liberate Kuwait), whether he had allies or not. And there is some (soft, I'll admit) evidence, that the Saudis and others wanted us to keep going to Baghdad. If we had wanted to, our soldiers could have reached Baghdad in 24-48 hours, from their positions at the cease-fire. We could have done it with almost zero incremental cost, and nobody could have stopped us. We chose to leave Saddam in power.
We were "constrained" by our policy of Realism.
Realism is short-hand for:
A foreign policy devoid of any moral compass,
that exclusively seeks short-term economic/military/political gain,
that ignores all longterm consequences,
ignores all secondary and tertiary consequences,
has forgotten all the ideals in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.
It amounts to permanent crisis management.
And man, does it hurt when the Law of Unintended Consequences circles around and bites us on the butt. |
