European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 9, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Saturday february 9, 199 the stars and tripes Page 13 commentary Andrew j. Glass Early end of War would Benefit coalition most the correspondents Call it a the eight of clock that so when the to lights go out and a High ranking Mili Tail officer tells reporters what a really going on in the War. When one such background briefing ended wednesday evening a grizzled Veteran of Vietnam acidly forecast the next Days headline As a desert storm the old timer Felt that he was hearing the same stuff each Day. More Allied air raids. More iraqi Bridges blown up. More b-52 strikes against the elite Republican guard and its 1,000 tanks dug in near Kuwait. A a a a. But without further sizable ground fighting or other big developments As the War entered its fourth week he sensed that the american led coalition was los ing critical momentum. The generals who run desert storm hold another View of what a going on a although they have trouble conveying it to a Broad Public. As they see it they have mounted a successful War of attrition. Their aim is to Wear Down iraqi resources and that nations will to fight. Some 3,000 years ago the babylonians fought wars of attrition in the same Lush Valley where modern Iraq is now situated. But this War of attrition runs Only one Way a against the iraqis. This is the Basic message that defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin l. Powell the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff will hear during their visit to the Gulf. As one top . Officer put it a the new York giants took on t in Little Sisters of the poor with foreseeable but there a More to it than that. Iraq still possesses formidable military assets. If Iraq is engaged on the ground in such a Way As to maximize those strengths a a As they would be in a Cross Border invasion or a direct amphibious assault on Kuwait a the Campaign could suffer Large casualties and falter. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf the theater commander does not intend to fight such a War. He dusted off plans for defeating a numerically Superior soviet Force in Central Europe using Only conventional weapons and adapted them to the Quindlen they Call for rapid movement with potent strikes deep in the enemy rear. By waiting and hoping the. Iraqi army might crack under stress Schwarzkopf has kept casualties is an integral part of his plan. But it too is not Cost free. A throughout much of the islamic world the ferocity of the air strikes has spawned a Strong backlash. It was evident wednesday in a speech by Jordan s King Hussein once a staunch . Ally. A fire Rains Down upon Iraq from air planes from battleships from submarines from rockets destroying Mosc Jues churches schools museums hospitals powdered milk factories bedouin tents electric generating stations and water networks a the King said in sending a your love and Pride Irth is. The King did not say that he has a grudge against the Royal saudi dynasty which had ousted his great Grandfather also named Hussein As the custodian of the two holiest cities in islam Mecca and Medina in the d 920s, nor did the King say that president Bush had Given iraqi president Saddam Hussein five months to leave Kuwait a after having made the consequences of inaction quite Clear. Yet in Thiu part of the Worl for memory tends to be selective. That is All the More reason Why the United states and its allies would be Best off if the War ended sooner than later. As it happens that is precisely what Schwarzkopf thinks will occur. A a Cox nows service Hindsight will Tell us Gulf War was ill advised its often used As a sour quip the sentence a Hindsight is always 20-20,�?� a dismissive remark a Coda. But then you see Hindsight with tears in its eyes and realize that perhaps this is one of our greatest tragedies. Our mistakes become Clear to us Only when we see them Over our shoulders trailing us like an ugly dog. Hindsight is 20-20 for Robert Mcnamara Thelle Cre tary of defense who raised the Vietnam War from its childhood through its horrid years As an uncontrollable Early adolescent. Hindsight is 20-20 for Lee Atwater the twangy Campaign Whiz who never met a Clever Nasty remark he did no to like and who helped make George Bush palatable and president. Both men Are troubled by their pasts which would be Only terribly sad if it were not that their pasts Are our history. Because of that their torment is a National tragedy and their regrets prefigure our future. Atwater writes in the current Issue of life Magazine tttaitg7 about the-day5 Nant brain tumor. The pictures Are heartbreaking. Somewhere inside the bloated Limp body in bed and wheelchair is the set Fly guitar player who celebrated the 1988 Republican Victory by throwing a blues concert. But you can to see him here.,he talks about the triumphs but what it All comes Down to is this that he has found god and discovered the sheer meanness of his professional style. A in 1988,�?� he says a fighting Dukakis i said that Quot re would strip the bark off the Little Bastard and a make Willie Horton his running i am sorry for both statements the first for its naked cruelty the second because it makes me sound racist which i am Mcnamara appears in time talking to Carl Bernstein and his words make you want to weep for him and for our bungled opportunities. Of Vietnam he says a because of misinformation and Are misjudgments As to where a nations interests lie and what can be it is a statement with great resonance these Days. Of the exaggeration of the from Munro threat he concludes a we could have maintained deterrence with a fraction of the warheads we the regrets of two men one aging the other dying. Atwater helped Poison the Levei of electoral discourse so that those two words May never again appear seemly in tandem. Mcnamara was a primary architect of the War that us Mindy to thousands of you Ned i ves and i tight a Sions about itself. In different ways at different times they added to the notion we Are a nation of bullies. Can George Bush a second thoughts on the War in the persian Gulf be Many decades behind it reminds me of fathers who come to their children now grown and say a these Are the mistakes i made. Please forgive and we do forgive but we age saddled with our characters shaped by those mistakes. And Atwaters words about on6 of his daughters pre tending to interview him a she had seen me interviewed so Many times on to perhaps she thought that was the Only Way she could find out the truth. A a watching her 1 Felt guilty at out the degree to which my career a and my illness a have robbed me of crucial time with my and Mcnamara who says that his wife a death May have been hastened by the National trauma of Vietnam a a she was with me on occasions when people said i had blood on my hands a and who is asked by Bernstein about the people who really know him the real Mcnamara the inner Man. Here is the answer. A a ample done to know and probably not my kids. And let me Tell you that a a weakness. If you re not known emotionally to people it Means you Haven to really communicated fully to people. I know its a weakness of mine but in a not about to change we re not about to change now. Manhood stands old definitions aggression winning at All costs. Work Over family control Over vulnerability. And finally regrets As corrosive As Atwaters disease As sad As Mcnamara a eyes a about what we did in the world about who we Are at Home two inseparable things. A a a j a War was inevitable. And inevitable. Too someday will be the Hindsight the documents that Tell us this was unnecessary and ill advised the advisers who reveal their misgivings years ten Lute. The regrets in Hindsight. New York times
