Via Juan Cole, this AP article takes us down memory lane and reminds us why Bush I was against invading Iraq in Gulf War I. For instance, here’s what then Secretary of State James Baker said in 1996:
Iraqi soldiers and civilians could be expected to resist an enemy seizure of their own country with a ferocity not previously demonstrated on the battlefield in Kuwait.
Even if Hussein were captured and his regime toppled, U.S. forces would still have been confronted with the specter of a military occupation of indefinite duration to pacify the country and sustain a new government in power.
Removing him from power might well have plunged Iraq into civil war, sucking U.S. forces in to preserve order. Had we elected to march on Baghdad, our forces might still be there.
What was true then is still true today. U.S. troops are going to be a fixture in Iraq for a long, long time.