Make that start with Bush 41, just to be clear. Remember it was 41 who stopped the fight after we got the Saddams out of Kuwait. Most of us knew Saddam was the problem at the time. We had the opportunity at the time of Gulf War I to stabilize the neighborhood and 41 kicked that can so far I can still hear it rattling.
IN 1991, Bush had to weigh several potential issues before decinding. 1) The public was horrified by the highway of death leading out of Kuwait. 2) Gorbachev was in serious danger of being deposed and the Russian thaw going into deep freeze. 3) Reagan had just spent 8 years being friendly to the Iranian fight with Iraq, and it was felt unwise to weaken Iraq too much and allow an Iranian takeover.
My opinion is that Bush should have continued the war 24 hours longer, and greatly weakened the Republican Guard. Also, he should never have allowed free use of helicopters which Saddam and Kusay used to great effect to destroy the Marsh Arabs and Kurdish areas.
But was Saddam really the biggest problem in the region? Obviously not!
Perhaps a better strategy in 1990 would have been to give Saddam to understand that he could do whatever he wanted in the Middle East as long as there were no nukes and gas stayed reasonable.
Then, bye bye Saudi Arabia! Imagine the screams of the religious police as they are fed feet-first through Saddam's wood chippers ...
Islam is not a religion of peace. It is incompatible with freedom and must be destroyed!