The elder President Bush had hoped that the Iraqi people themselves would dispose of Saddam but they did not (Iraqi society was too dysfunctional after decades of totalitarian rule). The Iraqis’ failure to remove Saddam set the clock running for when someone else would have to take him down.

My recollection is that the Iraqi’s asked for U.S. support in overthrowing Hussein but Tony Lake convinced Bill Clinton that the timing was inadvisable (see Bob Baer).