- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former President George Bush said in remarks
released Monday he had no regrets about failing to push into Baghdad to
oust President Saddam Hussein at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.
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- Bush, who organized the U.S.-led coalition
that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait, dismissed as ``revisionists'' critics
who have faulted him for failing to finish off Saddam.
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- ``...Had we gone into Baghdad or in to
try and 'get him' somewhere, the coalition would have ended ... instantly
shattered,'' he said in an interview to be aired on a Cable News Network
(CNN) special report Tuesday.
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- ``The Turks would have left us, Syria
would have been long gone; even our steadfast ally and friend (Egyptian
President) Hosni Mubarak would have had to leave us.
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- ``We would have essentially been alone
as an occupying (power) in an Arab land,'' he added in excerpts of the
interview made available by CNN.
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- Bush said ``all hell would have broken
loose,'' leaving the United States alone ``making a martyr out of a defeated
brute and tyrant...''
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- Although he voiced hope that Saddam would
be removed from office, he said ``reckless talk'' about killing him interfered
with efforts to build international support for the U.S. stance on Iraq.
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- ``I have no regrets,'' he said. ``If
you ask me am I happy he's still there ... absolutely not. But we did it
right.''
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