European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 02, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse A a a a a a r sign f a to 1�?o i f it k Quot of a t v a k sat Umay. February 2. 1991 4 w of tvs exr of the stars and stripes Page 11 commentary t what our airmen arc winning in the skies Over Iraq our diplomats Are losing behind closed doors in Washington. A the War is going better than we dared Hope. In Only tvo weeks we have gained control of the air the exodus of iraqi aircraft to Iran is an acknowledgement by Saddam Hussein that iraqi airspace now belongs to the allies. That Means we Are free to Pound his Supply lines until his hungry thirsty troops a who should be told by leaflet and broadcast that they have been deserted by the privileged tanks Tose the Means and will to fight. Saddam Sace weapon the scud mis Sale was designed to bring Israel into the War and transform the invader of Kuwait into an Arab. Hero. It was trumped by the Patriot anti missile system arid by the israelis willingness to bide their time in retaliating he is reduced to stunts a eco terror ism against cormorants and criminal outrages against prisoners of War a to divert attention from the relentless damage to his War machine by 100 Allied sorties an hour v to v t. A now he is trying to goad us into a premature ground attack with his forays across the saudi Border. That wont work either As soon As his tanks come out of bunkers they Are being destroyed. A a. A a a his Bedrock Assumption was that the . Would flinch in the face of horrendous casualties. That has turned out to be mistaken because our air War strategy is winning the War at the lowest Cost in lives i just used an unfashionable word president Bush in his mishmash state of the Union address preferred the More elegant verb Fine let us prevail at the conference table As Well As Over the Battlefield. In the mists of foggy Bottom we have suffered this wars first defeat. In the run up to the deadline of Jan. 15, Bush resolutely resisted any fraying of the Clear requirement that Saddam get out of Kuwait by that Date certain totally and without conditions. This was despite Craven last minute concessions offered Iraq by both the pres latest emissaries t<9 ident of France and the Secretary general of the that a Mere Promise to leave a not an actual withdrawal a would suffice a a. A. but Here is that same Concession in a Johnr Are then to issued by Quot Secretary of state j a me s a. Baker Iii and the Sov Iet foreign minister Aleksandr Bessmer Nyoh _ _ a the ministers continue to believe that non station of hostilities would Bejla Syible mite Cut to withdraw from first catch that a continue to Quot Baker admits he a always favored the merely a Promise Wil do Concession. Then Sec How the word a a Promise or a a pledge is made to look Tough it becomes a a an unequivocal commitment ,./ Concrete a \ baloney it says a just say you la get out Send Home a regiment and Well Call it. be have now adopted the scorned French position. V. A hut stand against a linkage a we applauded the steadfast refusal to allow Saddam to tic from Kuwait to an israeli withdrawal from land claimed by the 11,0 to save face by pretending iraqis stick up and rape of Kuwait was done for a less a ignoble cause. ,. But Here in the surrender on states seventh poor is the linkage Saddam sought a in addition dealing with the causes of instability and the sources of conflict including the Arab Lar Teli conflict will be especially important a this in the same a a Short statement pleading for a Mere Promise to withdraw plainly links Kuwait tothe Wist Bank. What links is linkage. / this Baker abomination is an invitation to the Butcher of Baghdad to Quot turn certain defeat info a kind of Victory. Although the president s pres ii Secretary said the written statement was a a misinterpreted and reflected Quot no change in policy a old hands know that All policy change is heralded by protestations of no change. /. Bush said later lie had a no differences with Baker. Lets not kid ourselves our goal i riot Only Saddam from Kuwait but to remove Saddam from Power a period. No comebacks with St shed away aircraft or hidden nuclear potential. If diplomatic niceties Triipe Power relations or the sensitivities of free Riding members of the coalition prevent it from blurting out this truth the least our Secretary of state can do is bite his Tongue and refrain irony Fritt ering away the goal our forces arc fighting to win if Iraq would make an unequivocal com now vex a Tim Sernest b. Furgurson . Must t let pow Issue War iraqis assertion that an Allied prisoner of War was killed in an air raid will fuel anti War protests and concern All americans. That is a weakness on our part. The display of captured airmen on iraqi television a their faces battered their voices strained their words forced a has done As much As anything so far to make americans More determined to car rough this War. Dumping of millions of barrels Fobil into the persian Gulf is described As an act of massive co terrorism which Saddam Hussein probably takes As a compliment. It May even Tum around some protesters who happen also to be environmentalists persuading them that he is their kind of enemy. Saddam is trying to discourage Allied Public opinion by making War visible and unacceptably cruel. Up to now that has backfired because by focusing on individual faces he emphasizes the human rights aspects of this. War rather than crasser objectives like Oil for Japan. But in the Long run his propaganda will continue to concentrate on individual victims because that jabs at America . The More . Servicemen in Captivity Are thought of As men with faces a As husbands fathers sons a the greater their usefulness to Saddam As a weapon of psychological War. In the United states most of us take Pride in treating our service members As human beings rather than automatons or statistics of War. Indeed we Are proud that we treat enemy prisoners As we would like our own troops to be handled in also go to great lengths to find and bring Home our own when fighting is Over. In the korean War Nego. Trillions Over flows dragged out the fighting for Many months. Sixteen years after the War in Vietnam ended we Are still searching Southeast asian Jungles for their remains still tracking Down rumours that a few Are alive in former enemy hands. More than anything else that Issue prevents normalization of . Relations with the government of Vietnam Quot. / although this concern is an admirable american trait in War it is a provides the enemy with a pressure Point a vulnerable spot he knows he can exploit As the War blogs on and casualties mount a or if he should decide eventually to try negotiating an end to the fighting. He knows . Public opinion will respond to whatever he docs with those prisoners. True to Date he has miscalculated in his use of them. Displaying bruised fliers on television arouses anger. Threatening to spot those prisoners at military targets to deter attacks does the same thing. Reporting that one of them has been killed in that process is unconvincing so far. The first iraqi report that this had happened did not offer the dead airman a Nam country rank unit or serial number. Pointing this out of course enables the iraqis to remedy their error by filling in those Blanks a perhaps even by providing a body for the camera. A ruler with demonstrated disregard for the lives of his own citizens surely would not hesitate at murdering a captive for display purposes. We must assume however that the iraqis will learn As they go along How to play this game More successfully against their Western opponents. Putting mistreated fliers on to May have won Saddam Points among the Arab masses elsewhere who have been brainwashed into thinking All non arabs Are agents of satan if he is aiming his propaganda at the West he must and surety will become less heavy ended. Americans must expect this and see it for what it is. Saddam succeeds if we let the publicized Fate of a few Brave prisoners outweigh the Aims for which president Bush took us into War or the lives of thousands of Anonymous soldiers whose names and faces never make it onto enemy television. One of the Wiser aspects of Bush a pre combat handling of the Gulf confrontation was his refusal to Wax hysterical Over the hostages held by Saddam. Quot seeing that holding them was not paying off Saddam finally let them go. He will not do this with prisoners of War. But the less hysteria about t4crn Here the less he is tempted to taunt us with them. If As time magazines latest poll reports 93 percent of americans support the goal of forcing Iraq out of Kuwait and 92 percent support removing Saddam from Power at least that Many mul face the fact that doing it will be Messy. In War it is foolish to let anguish Over a few prisoners or a few Hundred or thousand overrule about winning. Sufi the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stars and stripes or the United states government
