Clinton’s Renewed Air And Missile Strikes on Iraq Soil America’s Name

By Paul Findley

The USA Today newspaper published a photograph recently showing Palestinians in Gaza burning U.S. flags and chanting words of abuse against President Bill Clinton.

A week before another photograph showed Palestinians, perhaps some of the same ones, waving U.S. flags as they joyously welcomed Clinton to Gaza. The headline over the accompanying news report: “A hero for a week, Clinton is villain now to Palestinians.”

The news report began: “The U.S. flags that lined the street last week have been torched. The pictures of President Clinton that graced the walls of homes and shops have been ripped in two. Even the Christmas decorations that the first family hung on a tree have been taken down and smashed.”

A storekeeper is quoted as saying: “Clinton told the Palestinian and Arab people: ‘America is with you.’ Yet 48 hours later, he bombs Iraq. What a hypocrite. I’d like to slash his throat.”

An animal feed supplier is quoted: “The people are saying this isn’t just a strike against Iraq, that it is a strike against all Arabs from the strait [of Gibraltar] to the Gulf.”

The sudden, torrential outpouring of anti-American emotion is receiving little attention in the United States. Oblivious to this outrage, the American people are mostly rejoicing that no U.S. military person was even injured in the delivery of the enormous air assault against Iraq. They are pleased that a 26-year-old woman flying a sortie over Iraq became the first female fighter pilot to deliver bombs and missiles in combat.

The bombardment was heavier than the total onslaught on Iraq in Desert Storm. Nearly a half-billion dollars’ worth of missiles alone was unloaded on Iraqi targets. Aside from the financial cost, Americans consider it a pointed exercise of war power.

Three out of four Americans believe the assault was justified, a suitable punishment to Saddam. An estimate by the Center for Defense Information puts the initial cost of $488 million, but this is only the starting point.

Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, regional commander of the Desert Fox operation, said 30,000 U.S. troops were directly involved, plus support from 10,000 others of worldwide bases. The Associated Press reports that forces flew more than 600 sorties in four days, half of them night strikes. U.S. aircraft dropped more than 90 cruise missiles and 600 other bombs. Ten warships launched in all more than 300 additional cruise missiles. The cost of each is put at about $1 million.

In a military sense, it is difficult to comprehend how the turn of events is a victory for the United States over any predatory inclinations Saddam Hussain may have. There is little historic evidence that air assaults alone will cripple even defense and military installations of the enemy.

Students of air power conclude that only when accompanied by ground operations are air assaults successful. This is a lesson learned in World War II and in Vietnam. Despite the pounding, Saddam remains in power, probably more securely than before the assaults. United Nations weapons inspectors, who for all their limitations provided some constraints on Saddam’s military preparations, are gone from Iraq and likely gone for good.

The aftermath of the air assault discloses at least one major setback in the international quest to keep Saddam from developing weapons of mass destruction. David Kay, a former U.N. official, noted this casualty: “UNSCOM [the U.N. weapons inspection group], as we have known it for seven-and-a-half years, is history.”

For all the setbacks and indignities suffered by UNSCOM over the years, the inspectors were nevertheless able to identify and destroy massive amounts of weaponry. At worst, they represented an annoying presence that surely impeded some of the predatory plans Saddam may have entertained. They were experienced, highly trained personnel who were free to roam much of the countryside and provide valuable information to the United Nations Security Council.

The U.S. government faces high hurdles in the Council, where three permanent members, France, Russia and China, objected to the military assault. The United States and Great Britain proceeded with the assault without authority from the Council, and France, Russia and China have been supporting an easing of economic sanctions on humanitarian grounds.

Russia now demands the resignation of the U.N. inspection chief, Richard Butler. UNSCOM, with or without Butler, will likely survive in some diluted form, and the future of sanctions will continue to be bitterly debated. Under U.N. resolutions, the sanctions are to continue until UNSCOM certifies that Iraq has accounted for all its weapons of mass destruction. Without on-the-ground inspections and with UNSCOM virtually abolished, certification is unlikely.

The human toll from the air assaults is not yet known. In a televised news conference, General Zinni was asked how many military personnel and civilians were killed. He denied charges that schools and hospitals were targeted, but when pressed about the civilian death toll his answer was abrupt, unsympathetic and almost condescending: “We are not in the business of body counting.” So much for Arabs killed and wounded.

Newspaper readers who note the sudden—almost overnight—contrast in Palestinian treatment of the U.S. national emblem will be angered and some perhaps just amused, at what seems to be inconstant if not unstable Arab behavior.

And Palestinians reading the Internet report of the American scene may experience the same range of feelings as they read accounts of Clinton’s presidential lament at the tenth anniversary commemoration at Washington’s National Cemetery of the loss of 270 innocent lives aboard Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

At a new memorial to the tragedy Clinton barely had time to catch his breath from his televised address to the nation in which he expressed great satisfaction with the skill of U.S. military personnel and the accuracy of American missiles in blasting away at Iraqi targets.

The Iraqi assault that has caused general rejoicing in America likely caused death and serious injury to far more innocent human beings than those who died in the disaster at Lockerbie. Official Washington puts the Iraqi toll at 25 dead and 75 injuries, but the real totals are expected to be much higher.

In a limp effort to explain the Arab bloodshed, Clinton later offered this message carried over a number of Arab television stations: “I hope you realize that these attacks were in your best interests. Saddam must not be allowed to threaten his neighbors with poison gas. Our dispute is with the Iraqi leaders and not the Iraqi people.”

Positive effects of Clinton’s plea were nowhere to be found. Palestinian newspapers carried pictures of bandaged and bloody children. According to USA Today, Palestinian radio stations played old speeches in which Saddam called on Arabs “to fight America, the enemy of Islam.”

Reports of fierce Arab reactions likely reached few Americans, whose attention was riveted instead on the impeachment of Clinton. The response of Arabs was reported in only a few U.S. newspapers. USA Today carried the account on page 18A.

Francis A. Boyle, professor of law at the University of Illinois, writes: “We have only to the end of Ramadan to prevent another, even worse attack on Iraq. I believe Clinton pulled back on the latest attack and limited it to 70 hours on the calculation that he might need a prolonged military operation in January in order to help him on the impeachment trial in the Senate.”

The timing of Clinton’s most recent assault could not have been worse. It came during the seasons of peaceful celebration for all three of the world’s great monotheistic faiths—the eve of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month; Christmas, Christendom’s most sacred event; and for Jews the celebration of Hanukkah.

Although most Americans remain oblivious to the fact, Clinton’s unprovoked, illegal, unconstitutional, ineffective and immoral act of war against Iraq did enormous damage to American credibility, character and symbolism worldwide, not just in the occupied territories. The wreckage of Iraqi installations, military capabilities and civilian resources will be repaired far sooner than the damage to America’s good name.

Former Congressman Paul Findley (R-IL) is chairman of the Council for the National Interest. This article first appeared in the Saudi Gazette on Dec. 28, 1998.