User:Stevertigo/Gulf war notes

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http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/1991/910411-179956.htm

It's obvious why we should want to help the Kurds. Not only could the U.S. military easily stop the massacre of civilians, but Mr. Bush has on several occasions encouraged the Iraqi people to remove Saddam Hussein from office. The Voice of Free Iraq, a clandestine radio station probably sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency, has often reinforced this message. "We are with you," it told would-be revolutionaries, "in every heartbeat, in all your feelings, and in every move you make."

To make matters worse, American promises to shoot down Iraqi fixed-wing aircraft were not carried out.

There is no denying that the U.S. has incurred some moral responsibility to aid anti-Saddam forces. Nonetheless, the interest of both Americans and the people in the region are, in the long-term, best served by forbearance.

To begin with, American moral responsibility is limited. The U.S. government all along emphasized that it would not determine Iraq's future. Coming just weeks after tens of thousands of sorties against Iraqi targets, this statement has an admittedly peculiar ring. But, with the exception of some ill-advised (and off-the-cuff) remarks by President Bush, Washington always limited the goals of Operation Desert Storm to Kuwait. It specifically excluded Iraq. If the start of hostilities was announced by a rousing "The liberation of Kuwait has begun," the end came within hours after Iraqi forces had been expelled from Kuwait. As Secretary of State James Baker has pointed out, U.S. officials "repeated over and over again that the removal of

GE 2 TXT408 Saddam Hussein was neither a military nor a political objective."