That's a good question Tom and one I doubt any of us can answer but let me speculate on a few things.
It would've turned into a major Mideast conflict with Arabs fighting Arabs. Much of the work we're doing now would've been done for us without a drop of American blood or the formenting of hatred against us. This is also assuming we didn't rush into Israel and prop them up even more.
As bad as Hussein was, remember that he was running a secular society so his primary opponents would've been the same Islamic fundamentalists that you say are our enemies today.
We would never have put bases in Saudi Arabia and Bin Laden could not have used that fact as a basis for his 9/11 attacks. (not to say that he wouldn't have found another excuse)
We would've had a worldwide energy crisis. Our cars today would probably get about twice the miles per gallon. Short term - bad, long term - less dependence on Mideast oil.
Saddam would've had to play out his hand as far as his WMD's. He was justifiably hesitant to use them against us. Worldwide revulsion against him would've been so much stonger than simply discovering them later.
Turkey may have gotten defensive about the military actions and moved against him from the North.
Iran may have gotten defensive and moved against him from the East.
Syria may have done the same and moved against him from the West.
Now, none of those above countries were a real match for Saddam's military so he would've beaten down their armies and destroyed their weapons. However, he'd be split into multiple fronts weakening his own actions.
Have the feeling Israel would've gotten into the fray actually helping to defeat the enemy of some of it's most mortal enemies. Maybe some good will would've come out of that.
Bottom line is that I think in the end, the outcome would've come out much the same (Saddam driven back) but with some very tangible side-effects that would've been to our benefit down the road.
Current Events » in reply to After
No Gulf War I
The whole thread (39 posts)
- An answer on "Global Test"
- "Gobal Test" may have been an unfortunate choice of words. I wonder if "Global dialog" might not have been better. (n/t)
- re: Nope...
- Here, a picture says a thousand words...
- I don't get the part where the cartoonist has to lie about what Kerry said to make what he said palatable
- After
- d'oh, sorry, directed to Tom...... (n/t)
- Here, a picture says a thousand words...
