With regard to the With regard to the current allied difficulties, it is important to note what some senior American officials said about taking Iraq’s capital, Baghdad.
Occupying Baghad would be “unpardonable expense in terms of money, lives lost and ruined regional relationships.” Colin Powell.
“We should not march into Baghdad. . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero . . . assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability.” George Bush Snr.
See Nicholas Kristof’s piece in the IHT.