Bush Sr. Says He Underestimated Hussein

Former President George Bush, marking the 10th anniversary of the ground offensive in the Gulf War, said Friday that he regrets underestimating the resiliency of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

He refused to second-guess his decision to halt the war once the Iraqis were expelled from Kuwait, saying he and most Arab leaders wrongly believed that Hussein couldn’t survive “the vicious pounding.”

“But he did,” Bush said at a conference. “He did it through total brutality of his own people. . . . We underestimated the tyranny.”

Bush, in a nearly two-hour appearance at Texas A&M; University, where his presidential library is housed, shared a stage with retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, former British Prime Minister John Major, former Deputy National Security Adviser Robert Gates and former press secretary Marlin Fitzwater.

After initial air strikes early in 1991, Bush approved a plan that would start the ground assault by forces of a fragile 28-nation coalition he put together to eject Iraqi troops who had invaded Kuwait.

One hundred hours after Schwarzkopf launched the attack, the fighting was over and Hussein’s forces had been routed. Schwarzkopf, commander of the coalition army that peaked at 540,000 personnel, became a national hero.

The American death toll for the six-week war was 79, including 28 in the ground battles. Iraq put its losses at nearly 100,000, plus as many as 45,000 civilians.

In the decade since, debate has continued over whether coalition forces quit too early and whether they should have continued into Baghdad to remove Hussein.

“I think it was the right decision to cease the war when it did,” said Major. “At the end of the war, Saddam Hussein made solemn promises. He has broken each and every one of those promises. . . . The object was to free Kuwait. It was set free.”

Bush described the apprehension that led up to his decision to commit forces.

“I remember the agony, the worries about what the Russians would do, about public opinion,” he said. “I remember being very, very concerned about the use of chemical weapons. We knew they’d done it. I’m plagued to this day by a picture of a mother and a baby in her arms in northern Iraq gassed by Saddam Hussein’s people.”

Schwarzkopf, who retired later in 1991, told of waking up at night and repeatedly reviewing his plans to see if something was missed or if something could be done better.

“When human lives are on the line, it’s unforgivable that you’re too stupid and too lazy and that somebody is going to die because of your carelessness,” he said. “I didn’t want that to happen on my watch.

“What helped tremendously is that we knew we were right.”

Asked whether American forces could respond today like they did in 1991, he replied: “No. And I think that’s why the president of the United States has pledged to do something with the military,” he said, referring to George W. Bush.

Only a week ago, Bush’s son gave approval for renewed airstrikes over Iraq to attack air defense and radar sites south of Baghdad. Those attacks, by American and British planes, were related to enforcement of a “no-fly” zone.

U.S. and British pilots have been monitoring Iraq’s airspace since shortly after the war. Since Jan. 1, Iraqis have fired on allied planes over northern Iraq 15 times, and in three cases--including an incident last week--the allies fired back.

Iraq claims the flights are illegal and a violation of its sovereignty. The United States and Great Britain insist the patrols are authorized under U.N. resolutions calling for protection of Iraqi minorities--Shiites in the south and Kurds in the north.

Bush deflected policy questions regarding Iraq, telling an audience of about 2,500 people that he didn’t want his son to get “mad at me.”

But he said he believed “we just have to find ways to keep pressure on [Hussein] and comply with international law.”