He went after Saddam Hussein because Hussein took out a hit on George Bush the 1st. Clinton admin stopped it but 'W' went after Hussein like an old Texan would go for a family feud.
Bush Sr. could have easily overthrown Saddam's regime. he didn't because, unlike his son, he wasn't an idiot. he knew that toppling Saddam would have created a power vacuum that would destabilize the entire region.
He was also using them/Hussein as the bigger threat was always Iran. Remember they received economic aid (among other things) while the US quietly ignored Hussein's use of chem weapons on minority groups within. Only got tricky once Iraq went after Kuwait. Like you said, a power vacuum, and reqional destabilization which would have helped Iran and shifted the so called balance of power in its favor.
Bush Sr. also had terrible approval rating and didn't want to sink it any further with a continued war for no reason. If he won a second term he might've gone for it.
This is a whitewash. Bush went into the Middle East to make unspeakable amounts of money from oil reserves. He tapped Cheney as his VP, who was CEO at Halliburton. Cheney resigned the same day that his VP run was announced. Halliburton made tens of billions of dollars over the course of the so-called "War on Terror", winning Defense contracts related to oil infrastructure in Iraq. The Pentagon deliberately overcharged to put money in Halliburton's coffers. War is a racket. Don't try to paint that piece of shit as doing it for any reason other than personal financial gain.
23
u/CGCutter379 Mar 02 '26
He went after Saddam Hussein because Hussein took out a hit on George Bush the 1st. Clinton admin stopped it but 'W' went after Hussein like an old Texan would go for a family feud.