was uniquely positioned to remake the global order in the wake of the
Cold War. The only debate at the end of the first Iraq
war was whether the U.S. squandered an opportunity by not advancing all the way to Baghdad, ousting Saddam and occupying Iraq.
ut President George H.W. Bush cautioned against the risks of taking over Iraq. His top military adviser, Gen. Colin Powell, summed it up with the "Pottery Barn rule" – if you break it, you own it.