Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Stripped of politics, how fair is all that? Did Bush really bungle Iraq, or did he make a decent job of an inherently tortuous situation? Desert Shield and Desert Storm -- the diplomacy of building an anti-Saddam coalition and then routing the Iraqi dictator on the battlefield -- are an acknowledged triumph. The smart bombs of hindsight are aimed instead at prewar diplomacy, where Bush is accused of coddling Saddam despite mounting evidence of his aggressive intentions...
While the Administration's pro-Iraq tilt in 1989 and 1990 failed spectacularly in the end -- Bush himself admits it "was not successful" -- it had logic at the time. The original impetus was fear of the Ayatullah Khomeini's Iran. Even though Saddam had provoked the Iran-Iraq war in 1980, Washington began helping Iraq to stave off an Iranian victory. The Reagan Administration removed Baghdad from its list of terrorist countries, exchanged ambassadors, overlooked purchases of weapons from U.S. allies and secretly handed over intelligence about Iran's capabilities and intentions...
When the war ended in 1988, Iraq was the strongest power in the Persian Gulf. Some State Department officials thought tilting back from Baghdad would be prudent. There was ample evidence of brutality by Saddam, including use of poison gas against Iranians during the war and on his own people in the Kurdish city of Halabja, where at least 5,000 civilians were killed. Iraq was also considered a regional bully...
...Bush reaffirmed the pro-Baghdad approach, signing a directive in October 1989 calling for closer ties to Saddam and the continued supply of guaranteed credits to buy U.S. grain ($500 million worth were extended the next month) and technology. His rationale: Iraq had the region's largest army, second largest oil reserves, ties to Moscow that would be nice to weaken and big ambitions to be a local power. The U.S. wanted some influence -- and some export sales...
...responded by publicly calling Iraq's human rights practices "abysmal." Some officials wanted to do more and proposed putting Iraq back on the terrorist list. Officials prepared to tighten export controls and canceled another $500 million in commodity export credits because the Iraqi program was tainted by fraud. But Baghdad was still repaying its loans, and senior officials figured any harsh sanctions would only intensify Saddam's paranoia about U.S. intentions. Just days before the invasion, Bush continued to oppose restrictions proposed by Congress...