>>And why papa Bush didn't finish the work at that time?
>
>I wondered about that from the very beginning. After getting so far, what stopped the U.S. (or the coalition?) from overthrowing the government at that time? I don't know the answer.

Hilmar;

I may be incorrect but as I recall two events stand out about the Gulf War.

1. We were destroying the Iraqi army at will. The Republican Guard was in the rear to prevent anyone from retreating, and those soldiers who were being killed were not the elite Republican Guard. They were old men and untrained soldiers. At that time Iraq had the third largest army in the world.

Colin Powell called off the killing of the Iraqi army as a humanitarian gesture, and the Republican Guard escaped. Imagine – letting the best trained and most loyal men escape? I think that was a mistake. One number I heard about the number of Iriqi soldiers killed was 650,000. However, I never saw accurate numbers published but they may exist.


2. The UN Mandate to approve the Gulf War had a limited agenda, and did not include deposing the Iraqi leadership.

Tom