“… we would have had a very serious time, particularly with our Arab associates in the coalition, if we had tried to get rid of him, or had gotten rid of him. They were very much opposed to that, although they were more than willing to support us in driving Iraq out of Kuwait. ”

and here:

“… President Bush had said, and he was absolutely correct, was that the last thing he wanted, was to see the United States get into Iraq or that part of the world, and then stay there in force. The Arabs wouldn’t have liked it, Americans wouldn’t have liked it. And if we’d run him out, it would have been our responsibility to find a replacement for Saddam Hussein, help them set up a new government, and that could have kept us there for some period of time. ”

His interview with CNN in 2001 is here:

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/11/20/eagleburger.cnna/index.html

Also, King Hussein of Jordan was a pro-Western leader with strong ties to Israel whom many Arabs do not like. I would not consider his voice to be representative of many Middle Eastern Arabs.

The sectatian violence we have there now was predicted then, plus there was not support for taking out Bagdad. Special Forces were within 50 miles of Bagdad when orders pulled them back.

Al Qaeda was active in 91, btw. It just had not hit MSM yet.

They hit the news big in 98 Embassy Bombings

Make no mistake, I support getting AlQaeda and Osama Bin Forgotten.

The facts are that AlQaeda was not in Iraq when we invaded, there were no WMDs, they secured the oil fields while leaving weapons and munitions dumps unguarded and unblown (WMDs remember?)

AlQaeda was and still is in Afghanistan, but most our troops are bogged down in Iraq.

How can anyone with any military experience support the failed, FUBARed Iraq invasion is beyond me.

Comment by Wilco — September 28, 2007 @ 12:19 pm

And she didn’t this time, either. She was one of the senators “not voting” — as were Obama, McCain, Biden, and Brownback (pretty much all the presidential candidates).

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00355

This was not, however, a spending bill specifically for the Iraq war. It was House Joint Resolution 52 (already passed by the House), which was “a joint resolution making continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2008, and for other purposes.” In other words, it contained many appropriations for 2008, including money for the Department of Defense but also the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, and many others.

First the GOP, I think, needs to go, then we can work on the Dems, who, we know, are easily bent to vote as the flock turns.

Comment by Tracy1 — September 28, 2007 @ 2:43 pm

I was there in 91, and I have the scars as well as titanium in my leg as a permanent souvenir of my trip.
There was a reason we didn’t march all the way to Bagdad then.
The reason is very evident from the mess we have there now.

What about Afghanistan Tracy1?