One thing I never understood is why President Bush never thought about prevention. He was a pilot in WWII. He should certainly understood the concept. When Saddam Hussein made threats to Kuwait, Bush should have responded immediately. It should have been enough to simply tell him not to do it. With our national power at the time, it should have been eggnog.
However, if he really wanted to make a threat, make it simple. Tell him if he attacks Kuwait, then his southern oil fields would soon belong to the the USA. He knew it could happen. He knew the oil was a big part of his power. He would not have wanted to lose that oil. He would not have gone into Kuwait.
Even if he had, conquest of the oil fields would take weeks, if that long. There would not have been a need to build up troops. The Marines with the assistance of the Navy could have gone in there, and the Iraqi army would have run.
There would not have been a need to set up a no fly zone. There would have been no need to search out Hussein and there would have been no need to for the second war. They would have been no attack on the trade buildings in NY, NY. Thousands of lives would have been saved and the US would have had all the oil we needed.
Most important, the world would have know better than to threaten the US. We would have had no reason to go into Afghanistan. Oh, and by the way, don’t you know the leaders in Iran would have taken notice. Do you think they would be trying to gain the Nuclear advantage. Do you think they would be providing funding for terrorists organizations. All any president would have to say is, “You remember what happened to Hussein? We can take your oil fields too, you know.”
It is important for our opposition to know what we can and will do. It will save lives, and not just ours. It would have saved lives world wide.
This evening, I have two asides. Bush would have been able to keep his promise, “No new taxes,” and he would have won the election. Low cost fuel would have helped him too. Clinton would have never been elected or impeached.
Also, the Arab countries would have never been able to use the price of oil over us. It is conceivable that the price of gas would have gone back down to close to a dollar and remained there.
To be sure, there would still be wars and rumors of wars. Jesus told us this but maybe a little less so if Saddam had never gone into Kuwait. It would have been a good ounce of prevention. It is but one reason I am so impressed with Trump. It is how he works. He doesn’t believe so much in war, but in prevention. Prevention is more betterer every time.