To have continued into Iraq after the fleeing Iraqis, to have "carried the war to Baghdad" wouls have exceeded out mandate to remove the Iraqis from Kuwait, but would also have been seen as waging an invasive war agains one Arabic country, Iraq, from another, Saudi Arabia, and negated whatever good will we had engendered by our actions during Desert Storm.

     Schwartzkoff admitted we got snookered when we allowed the Iraqis to fly armed helicopters, which they used to kill Kurds and others hostile to Saddam's rule. As a result, we established the no-fly zones, and have been routinely attacking military aircraft flying in this zone. For obvious reasons, not the least of which being Saddam's mad-dog response to anyone who opposes him in any way, his anti-aircraft artillery and missile sites have been targeting oposing force fighters with missile guidance radars at every opportunity.

      While there are missiles targeted by optical sights, similar to binoculars or telescopes, and guided by other optical systems, use of an optical system can not be detected until the opposing aircraft observes a missile launch, while "locking up" a SAM radar on an opposing aircraft is both an act of war and easily detectible.

      The operating rules here are "you paint our aircraft with AAA Radar and we'll try our darndest to take that AAA site out! You keep on doing it and we'll launch supressive strikes on every site we can find to convince you that painting our aircraft is dangerous to your health."

     Now Hussein is not the first, nor will he be the last, to deliberately group civilians and civilian installations like hospitals or religious sites around radar, missile, and other military sites; it was common in North Viet Nam, Germany during WWII, and in other conflicts. During the Gulf War we heard much about our destroying innocent civilians taking shelter in the top floors of bunkers housing commsnd posts and other centers of war making activity. Doing so is contrary to the Geneva Conventions for Land Warfare, which insure that POWs are treated humanely, that hospitals and hospital ships are not targeted, and that the neutrality of uninvolved nations is not violated. Unfortunately, many nations are not signatory to these conventions, and frequently they are not observered in their entirety during a conflict.

      We can't do much about these things except try to fight by the book ourselves, and stay out of as many conflicts as we morally can.

      Dave