The United States' war against Iraq, 1990-2008

Today, 11/29/08, marks the 18 year anniversary of the first step toward the United States' long war in and against Iraq. The first air assaults and ground operations (that is, likely special operations missions) began on January 16, 1991, but on November 29, 1990, the UN authorized the use of force to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait if it did not withdraw from the tiny oil-laden state. Prudence dictated that Bush I dispatch American troops and military presence throughout the Gulf and region as a whole, where they have remained for years since. One could even astutely point out that one of Bin Laden's lasting complaints centered on stationing American troops in Saudi Arabia, and, after the creeping war under Clinton and the 2003 invasion, Iraq has been a principle recruitment arm for Al Qaeda. So, in other words, the United States' actions in Iraq went far in producing and sustaining Al Qaeda.

The United States has largely been at war with Iraq since late winter 1990-91, be it through harsh sanctions that may have killed up to half of a million civilians, covert attacks with the single goal of toppling Saddam, air assaults, patrolling air space, or full invasion and occupation. It wouldn't be wise for a politician or even a Democrat to acknowledge the long war chronology, but it's difficult for me to substract the Clinton presidency from Bush I's and Bush II's wars against Iraq. Of course, they are disparate facets of war, but war nonetheless. Indeed, it was Clinton who signed the Liberate Iraq Act in 1998, funneled money to dissident groups in and outside Iraq, relied on the CIA to operate against Saddam in Iraq, rained bombs in Iraq in 1998 and after, and used the UN to punish Saddam in hopes that it could trigger a coup. Although the Clinton folks claimed to rely on a policy of containment, their "containment" was, in fact, direct action and war.

I'm not a Bush apologist, but it seems silly to employ labels such as "Gulf War I" or "Gulf War II" when they aren't accurate and thus disguise the Clinton administration's policies against Saddam, his purported WMDs, and Iraqis who've suffered the most since 1990. Much of the justification for the 2003 invasion echoes the Clinton administration's own words and deeds, which is why in 2002 Bush referred to Saddam's weapons programs as "a decade of deception." Clinton shouldn't get a free pass.