George H.W Bush has been criticized over the years about not “finishing the job” in Iraq when he had the chance, meaning he pulled the troops out before removing Saddam Hussein from power. However, what many historians fail to recognize is the goals of this operation stated by Bush in his Address on Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait. The two opposing viewpoints of this event are one, if the United States kept pushing into Iraq they would not only lose many more lives but also they would also lose international support and two, they could remove Saddam Hussein from power. As stated in Bush’s Address on Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait in August of 1990, the main goals of the operation were, to get Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, repair the Kuwaiti government, …show more content…
Presidents). Bush was justified for taking action against Saddam’s forces for the unjust actions taken against the Kurdish people and he got verified by the UN to assemble troops drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait. The mission of the UN was just to eliminate the Iraqi forces from Kuwait so Bush feared that if they kept pushing into Bagdad that he would lose the UN’s support and be forced to attack Iraq with only the U.S. troops hence, putting more American lives at stake. By driving into Bagdad the forces would have to control the area for months afterward, being still attacked by the extremist Iraqis. Also, the UN resolution only legally allowed the liberation of Kuwait and going father would be a violation of the United Nations which could bring up greater problems between the members. Bush was concerned about the security of the nation. Neighboring countries were for the elimination of Saddam, however they knew with him gone, that it just paved the way for the country to fall to the mullahs in Iran. The Islamic peoples with aid from the Iraqi Shiites could transform the country into a very extreme regional power (History in Dispute