>Probably should have just annexed the southern oil fields to Kuwait and the Mosul fields to the Kurds. the rest of the country really isn't worth the bones of a prussian grenedier.

The "resolution" of the first iraq war had me scratching my head - just slapping Saddams finger with overwhelming force (paid only to a minimal degree by the US - hats off to Bush senior in this regard!) never made sense to me. Giving Kuwait a bunch of oil fields as "reparation" and allowing them to pay more of the war effort from that might have also raised the "war for oil" cries back then BUT sent a clearer message in the early nineties into the whole area<g>.