After evacuating Baghdad late in 1990, Seidel had taken a leading role for the agency in the Gulf War. “We are not prepared to go down the slippery slope of being sucked into a civil war,” Baker told reporters. “We cannot police what goes on inside Iraq, and we cannot be the arbiters of who shall govern Iraq.” It was another strained formulation of policy, given the administration’s open record of incitement to overthrow Saddam.
