WHAT IF: IRAQ AND POWER

Maybe this is a rather 'off the mark' 'what if?', 
but if not, then how else to account for it, 


either under Power's account, 
or DK's criticism of her account: 


What if these events and consequences, below, were at least in part your goal, 
rather than events out of your control which you could not prevent?:




"Between 2003 and 2007, according to authoritative sources, tens of thousands of Iraqis were killed in civil war, about two million left the country, and two million more were internally displaced by ethnic cleansing. That was certainly comparable to the ethnic cleansing that took place in the Balkans in the 1990s, which Power is so convinced that the US and NATO could and should have stopped. But the events in Iraq took place while the United States had an occupation force of over 100,000 troops in the country.That huge intervention, which we certainly do not have the resources to impose again, could not stop the killing. Things quieted down after the surge, but many observers, some from the American military, explain that the violence ebbed in large part because the process of ethnic cleansing had been completed." 


Are mere incapacity, ignorance, or indifference adequate explanations, alone or together? 


Force levels were our choice, after all, weren't they?


Another what if, I am sure this has been discussed as well in the past. 


It has often been said that Saddam 'badly misjudged' US willingness to defend Kuwait, comments like that:


What if Saddam was partly at least baited into misjudging US intentions and resolve, either by the US itself, or by third parties with other agendas afoot, there and elsewhere, or both?


What if