Timing was critical for the conduct and success of both Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom. Diplomacy made it possible for the United States and the Soviet Union to reconcile many of their differences after forty-five years of the cold-war….but it is unable to bridge the differences between President George H.W. Bush and Saddam Hussein over Kuwait. President George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 was based on incorrect information−about weapons of mass destruction and a supposed nexus between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda’s terrorism−and then occupied the country negligently. Desert Storm provides an example of an administration that attempted to use their diplomatic power, while Operation Iraqi Freedom is the exemplar of an administration
