European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 a the stars and stripes saturday september 15, 1990 column Martin Gottlie persian Gulf crisis makes strange bedfellows it is difficult to detect any major split in american Public opinion Over Iraq a except among radicals on both the left and the right. Ordinary americans seem to be heavily concentrated around this View president Bush had excellent reason to move . Troops into the persian Gulf but the time has not come for military action beyond that deployment. That position represents a common sense balancing of legitimate National and International concerns. But if politics were about common sense what would we need ideologues for the ideologues of the right and left Are not split along traditional lines. Indeed conservative Pat Buchanan agrees with former attorney general Ramsey Clark of the hard left that Bush a move into the Middle East was a mistake. But most of the right along with Jesse Jackson of the left supports that move. What a the pattern Here Why is Buchanan in political bed with Clark what unites the new Hawks the Central Factor appears to be Israel dedicated friends of Israel a on both the right and the left a tend to be Hawks on the Gulf crisis. But people a on both the right and the left a who think that the United states is too tied to Israel tend to be Gulf doves Jesse Jackson a support for Bush might be seen As a contradiction of this generalization unless you see Jackson As a politician who is eager to live Down his reputation for Tilting against Israel. He has been sharply criticized for his Gulf position by some on the hard left including a Leader of the War resisters league. On the other hand. Jerome Grossman of the Council for a liable world who devotes himself to anti arms work also supports Bush s Gulf policy. Asked about the president he replied Quot number one he set a bad example when he invaded Panama. Number two he continued the Reagan policy of not encouraging Energy conservation. Number three he did not denounce iraqis use of chemical weapons. But in his handling of the current crisis apart from the obscene con Tom Wicker to nation of his vacation i have no serious major  you might think that a self described Quot peace Nike who is so anti Bush would be Likely to oppose the presidents Gulf policy too. But Grossman while critical of the current israeli government is intensely dedicated to Israel. Take the right. Buchanan has Long been seen by pro Israel forces As an enemy. Meanwhile such staunch conservative supporters of Israel As William Safire Charles Krauthammer and Richard Perle Are pushing the president toward tougher policies. The new Republic Magazine a hard to categorize on a left right spectrum but intensely passionately pro Israel a wants War. Factors other than Israel figure into the debate of course. Buchanan and others Are promoting a new isolationism As an appropriate Post cold War posture for conservatives. But Israel is crucial. Buchanan characterizes his opponents within the gop As the Quot Neo conservatives who joined the conservative movement Only when Ronald Reagan was elected to the White House. He is really talking about the movements jewish intellectuals. One could look at the dispute among the ideologues and begin to wonder if we Are heading for times in which references to jews and jewish concerns Are not so carefully veiled. Franklin Roosevelt largely ignored the Slaughter of jews that went on under Adolf Hitler. According to some one of his reasons was that he did not want world War ii to be seen by americans As a Quot jewish  its reasonable to worry about the same possibility in the Gulf. But so far americans seem to understand that just As american interests required that Hitler be stopped so they now require that Saddam Hussein be stopped. If we can just keep the pro Israel ideologues from flipping out entirely in Pursuit of War and the anti Israel ideologues from proceeding As if anything Israel wants can to possibly be in . Interests we can probably still maintain a degree of common sense Unity. Cox news service allies show Little yen to support desert shield West Germany after decades of benefiting from american policies including military Protection has offered the flimsiest of excuses for shirking a fair share of the costs of the shield american troops Are providing in saudi Arabia for German Oil supplies Bonn cannot financially support that shield German officials told the Washington Post because it represents Only a bilateral arrangement Between the United states and the saudis. As if the american deployment of troops and weapons to prevent an iraqi invasion had nothing to do with protecting Oil for the factories of the Ruhr this shameful exercise in Pinch Penny rationalization overrode what the officials said was Chancellor Helmut Kohls Quot gratitude for . Support of German unification. Some gratitude the affluent germans Point out that their Constitution prohibits their participation in military efforts beyond Europe. But it does no to prevent them from sending Cash if they want to. And if it salves the German conscience it hardly repays american sacrifices when Bonn says it May provide a few ships and planes but Only if necessary to help move someone else a troops a the United states naturally a to the Middle East. Japan another wealthy beneficiary of . Policies and Protection Over the last 45 years has joined the soviet Union in professing support for collective Security in the Middle East. Thanks a lot Tokyo now How about putting up some real yen to give meaning to that profession As Well As to help protect the Oil that fuels the japanese Economy compare the meager contributions of Germany and Japan with that of hard pressed Britain prime minister thatchers government not Only has sent a 2,000-member Force but also ships and planes to saudi Arabia and has committed itself to sharing the Overall costs of operation desert shield a which May reach $50 billion for the first year. The spectacle of principal allies and primary beneficiaries looking the other Way when Washington justifiably seeks their help does underscore a Point too easily overlooked in the United states. If Germany and Japan will do Little or nothing to help an International operation that a clearly in their own interest they will do nothing a they probably would oppose a a unilateral american attack on Iraq designed to disarm it and overthrow Saddam Hussein and which would destroy rather than preserve Oil production. Such an attack is hotly debated among american conservative spokesmen although neither the Bush administration nor Thatcher now contemplates so dubious a military adventure. Self proclaimed hard liners who favor it argue that a nuclear armed Iraq May someday threaten not Only the Middle East but the world. Erstwhile hard liners who oppose an aggressive War in the desert believe the . Interest is Only to defend saudi Arabia from invasion and to use economic pressures to try to Force Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait. Patrick Buchanan Robert Novak and others in the latter group May be discomfited to find themselves aligned with some they deride As liberals and in a few cases it May be the other Way around but prudence and common sense alike argue against a preventive . War against Iraq a a War that probably would cause even faithful Buntain to stand aside. That a not anti semitism or isolationism or cowardice or any other ice or ism that the Hawker conservatives Are throwing at opponents. Wars Cost More than holding operations or Boycotts and if the holding operation on the saudi Border together with the Boycott of Iraq already costs the United states More than it can easily afford a Long bloody unsupported perhaps unsuccessful War against Iraq would Cost far More a in american and world Public support As Well As dollars. If such a War against its most feared antagonist would please Israel in the Short run that War would turn the rest of the Middle East and the Arab world against the United states and Israel and that can to be Good for either in the Long run. A . Attack on Iraq also would destroy the new possibilities for collective Security in a Post cold War world either to free Kuwait or to contain Iraq in the years to come. And what no hard liner has yet had the foresight to say would the United states do if it did conquer Iraq occupy it install a government chosen in Washington turn it Over to Yitzhak Shamir Man the Oil derricks with marines the new York times