George Bush Snr. and Brent Scowcroft explains why the US didn't attempt to oust Saddam and occupy Iraq following the Gulf War
Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.Oh.
