Father knew best

This rehash is worth re-reading, if only because it becomes more true by the day. (Today's news: car bombers killed at least 45 more people--most of them children--and wounded scores more in operations aimed at Iraqi government targets.)

In George H.W. Bush's memoirs, "A World Transformed," written five years ago, he wrote the following to explain why he didn't go after Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf War:

"Trying to eliminate Saddam...would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible... We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.... There was no viable 'exit strategy' we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations' mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the  United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."

(Thanks and a hug to Colleen Spedale.)