Postscript

Had Operation Desert Storm achieved the destruction of the Republican Guard, Saddam Hussein would have been overthrown, the United States would not have had to “contain” Saddam Hussein’s regime with the use of a “no fly” zone for a decade plus, and we would not have been required to execute Operation Iraqi Freedom. More important, in 1991 the United States government was perfectly willing to stand by while the Shiite Arabs and Kurds rebelled, toppled Saddam Hussein, and formed whatever government they deemed appropriate. In 1991, no one in Washington thought a U.S. military occupation was either necessary or advisable to “oversee” the installation of a new Iraqi government. It is tragic, indeed, that the U.S. government did not reach the same conclusion in 2003.

The twelve years of containment, the 2003 combat phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the misguided attempt to establish a secular, Western-style democratic state in a region where it has no chance of surviving, and the Sunni Arab rebellion against the U.S. military presence cost the American people 36,000 battle casualties and a trillion dollars. The number of Muslim Arabs killed as a result of the U.S. military occupation is anyone’s guess. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs have been wounded, killed, or incarcerated. At least two million Iraqi Arabs now live in refugee camps in neighboring Jordan and Syria. Two million more are refugees inside Iraq. When U.S. forces leave Iraq, more fighting is expected as the various parties inside Iraq struggle to consolidate their respective political and economic power. Only Iran benefits from these conditions.

How ironic it is that General Colin Powell and President George H. W. Bush allegedly halted combat operations at the hundred-hour mark on humanitarian grounds and from fear that the global media would castigate the United States for annihilating Iraq’s remaining forces—namely, the Republican Guard Corps. And yet, the cost in blood and treasure to both the United States and Iraq would have been a fraction of what it has been thus far. Yes, 20/20 hindsight is perfect, but the case can be made that the decision to “take it easy on the defeated Iraqi enemy” was the most inhumane thing President Bush and his generals could have done!