European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 5, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Tuesday March 5,-1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Anthony Lewis lessons Learned from remarkable Triumph Boston a at the end of the Battle of Agincourt in Shakespeare so Henry. Viking Henry says this note doth Tell me of ten thousand French that in the Field lie slain. A where is the number of our English dead a a a a a a a a a. A. _ a Edward the Duke of York the Earl of Suffolk sir Richar Ketly Davy Gam Esquire none Els of name and of All other men but five Atid Twenty. O god thy Arm was Here a. A a a a. \ a Victory in the War with Iraq leaves us with such feelings of Awe. With half a million soldiers on each Side the United states and its coalition partners had Only about 140 killed. How did it happen what Are the consequences even at this Early hour we can begin to draw some lessons for the future. First the United states had outstanding political and military leadership. Having decided on War months ago president Bush prosecuted it with impressive skill. In Colin Powell and h. Norman Schwarzkopf he had generals of uncommon intellect and resourcefulness. To pay those deserved compliments is to recognize a second feature of this War going it alone a treating it As an american show would not have worked. Our leaders were successful in Good part because they understood that president Bush and Secretary of state James a. Baker Iii worked hard to organize the coalition. Bush even managed to handle the last minute soviet peace initiative with just enough politeness to avoid fatal injury to relations. Schwarzkopf concern was evident at his Victory briefing in the Praise he carefully gave each participating Force. The United nations played a crucial role a third Point. The Security councils resolutions shaped the coalition and the politics of the conflict to the very end. Its authorization to use Force was essential. If Bush stalk of a new world order is to have any meaning the United nations will i amp be to play a much greater part in the future in preventing War. The Anna Quindle heres the Kremlin peace plan for Kuwait. We sen in soviet troops.,. Storm the to stations shoot citizens Prive Over protesters with our tanks of sorry that a Baltic peace Ptak . System can work we know that now. And prevention is far better than War. That is a practical Point not just an idealistic one. For a fourth lesson of the persian Gulf War is that neither the United states nor the world can afford to repeat it. We fought the War on Money promised from others. The United states will not want that to be a pattern making itself a provider of mercenaries. The colossal Effort of sending 500,000 soldiers Halfway around the world cannot be made again soon if Ever. It is not just a question of Money. The particular combination of interests and opportunities that made this War go As it did is not Likely to recur. A a done to get the idea it will always be this there is a fifth lesson put that Way by professor baby Posen a military expert at Mit. A the terrain was favourable to our High tech weapons and we were up against a second rate gangster. We must not confuse what we did Here with using military Power to redirect the Domestic politics of a Saddam Hussein did make it easier. Seldom has a tyrant had More military Confidence with less reason. Seldom has one missed with such consistent Folly every Chance to save something from defeat. There is another Factor that made it possible to win this War so quickly one that we have mostly put out of our minds. That is the terrible punishment that we inflicted on iraqis from the air. The casualties Are As disproportionate As they were at Agincourt. Estimates of the number of iraqi soldiers killed approach 50,000. An unknown number of civilians died in the bombing too and civilian deaths Are Likely to increase As a result of the destruction of water Power and sewage facilities in Iraq s major cities. Arabs and others who were entranced by Saddam will quickly be disenchanted i think. But they May go on asking themselves whether the world would have paid so Little attention to Western deaths in such numbers. Weaponry has been glorified in this War. But we have to remember that the War occurred because of the weapons the world supplied to Saddam Over the years. The fundamental lesson has to be that we just control the Sale of arms to the whole Region from Here on a not just to Iraq but to All the players. If we Arm saudi Arabia then Israel will want More then Syria then Iran. At a minimum this War should teach us that the Middle East is too dangerous a place for limitless weaponry. C the new York Tom lathe rep i test begins now that we have peace a barely 18 hours after the persian Gulf War ended a Man was on Broadway near times Square hawking Victory to shirts. A we won a they said on the front the words flanked by two american flags. A operation desert storm. Jan. 16-feb. 27.�?�All i could think of was some smooth Small time entrepreneur standing with one Eye on the television and one on the boys in the Back room Yelling a Roll Mem. A a a 1. I lit. Olill a do Lviv ulliui.111 Vuu ital j a a a w. J v a a we commemorative item around in less than a Day. It was like that from beginning to end a the microwave War ready to be consumed digested and cleared away in a fraction of the usual time. No wonder the television people seemed to be running on 78 rpm for the first week. The ground War took less time than it takes to get Over the flu. A. And fewer americans died in combat Over the six weeks of the Gulf War than Are habitually murdered in new York City during a comparable period of time. The enemy never really showed up. A when we were in the air we supposed he was saving his knockout punch for the ground. Instead on the ground he marched beneath a Flag of White. Euphoria has been one of the wars buzzwords. We have been repeatedly cautioned not to feel it. The president said the other night this was not the time for it. It had never crossed my mind. Quot i am reasonably sure of Only three things that George Bush will be re elected president in 1992 that if he chooses either Colin Powell or Norman Schwartz Kopf As his running mate he might win by the largest landslide in the history of the nation and that we Are incredibly skilled at War. I know that last should provide a certain Security. When i was trying to feel something the night the peace began something More electric than fatigue and Relief i pictured All the Homes in which people must be holding each other and grinning with wet faces because someone who meant the whole world to them was alive and whole and coming Home. There were Many More of those scenes that night than we Ever expected when we talked about thousands of casualties when we wondered How Many lives were too Many. The lesson we Learned from Vietnam was that it was possible for the United states to be an abject failure in the theater of War. _ the lesson we be Learned from this is that we Are a smashing Success. Because of technology and tactics and training we Are a staggering fighting Force. We have Learned that we do this . And that frightens me. Of if it makes each nation in the world think thrice about aggression because it fears the biggest kid in class i say Hooray. A a but if it makes us cocky a and a cocky american is the cock est creature on Earth a that will be a disaster. A a a a a. A the failure of Vietnam made us gun shy for almost two decades. It is a much greater failure to be trigger Happy. If the iraqi rout becomes our Model of conflict Resolution we will have suffered a great defeat. Too soon to Tell. That is our refrain. Never has the first rough draft of history been produced under such deadline pressure. Not far from the to shirt stand was that spot on times Square where people celebrated the end of world War ii where a photographer took that famous picture of a Sailor kissing a woman with the Celebration raging around them that is one of our great visual images of the euphoria that can accompany Victory and peace. Perhaps we will see images like that when the soldiers come Home. The test May be the to shirt 20 years from now a relic at the Bottom of someone a Dresser drawer a reminder of the last time we went to War. A every 20 years it happens a a soldiers father said to me when this All began All those years ago in january. Maybe now we have the authority and the Confidence to allow that Span to stretch. This is the peace before the storm. Now comes the testing of our Mettle. A the Udo a York times a a a
