432 • 21 THE WAR ON TERRORISMpeople who openly defy the West. The invasion of Afghanistan did even¬
tuate in the formal election of Hamid Karzai in October 2004, but the
country remains deeply split along ethnic, tribal, and sectarian lines. In
2005 a tentative step was taken by some Iraqi voters, but the creation of a
cabinet took more than three months. It is unlikely that the US occupation
authorities would tolerate a central government that opposed their pres¬
ence in the country.THE IRAQ WAREver since the Allied Coalition drove Iraqi troops from Kuwait in 1991,
some people have wondered whether it should have continued the war, in¬
vaded Iraq, and ousted Saddam Husayn. The first President Bush refused to
do so, arguing that it would lead the US into a deadly quagmire. Instead, the
US and its allies agreed to a cease-fire, allowed Iraq's army to operate heli¬
copters and other light weapons, refrained from aiding the Kurds and Shi'i
Arabs who revolted against Baghdad (expecting outside assistance), and
maintained the UN Security Council's sanctions on trade with Iraq until
the world body's inspectors could ascertain that the Iraqi government pos¬
sessed no nuclear, biological, or chemical arms (that is, "weapons of mass
destruction"). Iraq's powers were further limited by two "no-fly zones" that
barred Iraqi aircraft from the country's northern and southern thirds, al¬
though the UN had never authorized such a restriction. US planes and
long-range missiles struck Iraq in 1993,1996, and 1998, and there were also
occasional defections and efforts to subvert Iraq's military forces. The sanc¬
tions alone kept vital supplies from the Iraqi people, costing an estimated
half-million lives due to malnutrition and diseases. Eventually, the UN and
Iraq worked out a deal by which Iraq was allowed to sell oil in exchange for
food and medicines, but this "oil for food" deal hardly alleviated the plight
of most Iraqis and probably lined the pockets of high officials on both sides.
The Clinton administration and the Republican-dominated Congress drew
up plans for invading Iraq, but internal problems in Washington distracted
the US government from any such action.
Bush and the Neoconservatives
The election of George W. Bush in 2000 raised new possibilities for US ac¬
tion. Among those entering his administration was an influential group
known as the "neoconservatives": Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, and
Douglas Feith, among others. Wolfowitz, who became deputy secretary of