Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...force was to be committed. But Bush took the bold step of moving U.S. combat troops to the region without seeking congressional approval. His reasoning: "If I had ever conveyed to this Congress that I wasn't going to do anything unless I had their endorsement . . . I really believe Saddam Hussein would still be there." The President now concedes that his action carried enormous political risks -- including a possible impeachment attempt if Desert Storm had failed. "They would have had impeachment papers out there in a hurry -- no question about that -- for violating my constitutional authority, for leading our country...
...force to win a war if it came to that. He focused his argument on the Iraqi strongman: "I tried to make very clear from the beginning that it was not a battle with the people, but with this dictator." As the Jan. 15 deadline approached, Bush concluded that Saddam had badly misjudged the situation. "Somewhere along the line," the President recalls, "I realized that he felt we were bluffing, and that he also felt another thing where he was just as wrong: the Nasser parallel -- he doesn't have to win to win. He can be seen as standing...
...other specters haunted Bush's thoughts. Chemical weapons worried him: "All the plans were predicated on ((Saddam's)) using chemical weapons because he'd done it before." Bush was also haunted by the ubiquitous images of body bags that appeared in the press early in the crisis. It seemed almost as if the dead were being counted before any battle had been fought. "Body bags," Bush mutters. "The charge by the opponents . . . was that 'you're going to have on your hands, Mr. President, the lives of the 30,000.' We'd ordered 50,000 body bags. I think that...
Once he unleashed his forces against Saddam, Bush was astonished by how smoothly things went and how few allied casualties there were. "I was surprised that it literally worked out -- in spite of the predictions -- as quick as it did," says Bush. "The system worked, so I wouldn't change one thing in the way the decision making worked...
...Saddam is still in power, of course, and there has been much debate about Bush's decision not to send his tanks to Baghdad and topple the Baathist leader. But the President insists that the chastened and defanged Iraqi dictator is no worldly threat today. "The Republican Guard units, some of them, have been dismantled," he says. "Most of them are 50% strength. And it's a different army. They aren't capable ((of projecting)) aggression the way they did before...