GET UP! GET INTO IT!
GET INVOLVED!
"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
self-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." -George H.W. Bush in his book A World Transformed
(1998)
"I don't know anyone who now thinks the American war in
Vietnam was a good idea. Even Robert McNamara, one of the
key directors of that war, now says it was a "tragic mistake." As
for the invasion of Iraq, I expect our troops will still be there
suffering daily casualties long after I am gone from this earthly life.
I also expect that most Americans now backing the war will
conclude that it was a mistake." -George McGovern