European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 5, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday april 5, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary Tom Wicker was War Worth sacrificing environment about 6 million bands of oi.1, weighing roughly a million tons and making up some 10 percent of the worlds daily Oil ration Are going up in smoke every Day from the 550 kuwaiti Wells set afire by iraqi occupiers. None of the fires has yet been put out and at the projected extinction rate of five Days per Well the Job could take As Long As two years. Meanwhile the burning Wells Emit a daily Load of a a 50,000 tons of Fulfur dioxide a prime cause of acid Tain a and 100,000 tons of sooty smoke into the atmosphere. The remainder is mostly Carbon dioxide. Scientific experts disagree on How bad the environmental cons Equnn pcs might be. But . Authorities seem to have been worried about causing a real disaster. A. A a a a a v a quo just As they controlled information about the desert War itself the authorities also clamped Down on discussion by department of Energy officials about a a envy Ron mental impacts of firms Oil spills in the Middle  this is reported along with details of the conflagration and its results by John Morgan in the Melfy Issue of scientific american. The order limiting information to the Media a a copy of which was obtained by Morgan a was issued in writing on Jan. 25, just after the War began by the Doe office in san Francisco. A department spokesman told me that the purpose was to deny a information useful to the  a. But it was the iraqis who set the fires and the same office told Horgan the order was not rescinded until March 22, Well after hostilities ended. Was it feared in Washington that dire environmental forecasts about Oil Well fires might dim enthusiasm for the War that seems possible since iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein threatened As Early As september to destroy Kuwait swells if the allies tried to drive him out by january few could have doubted that he would do it. A a a a. A a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a there a no doubt that Kuwait itself has suffered what1 Raymond Henry an american firefighting expert called an environmental  daytime temperatures beneath the thick smoke Clouds Are far below Normal hospitals Are jammed with respiratory patients Quot Black rain is damaging crops Ana water supplies and the fierce fires rage on. Farther away estimates vary. Some authorities predict a global a arriving effect owing to an increase of As much As 5 percent in emissions of Carbon dioxide. Others foresee a sort of a nuclear Winter caused by the 30-Odd million tons of smoke the burning Wells Are expected to Emit in a year. If Only 1 percent of the smoke reaches the stratosphere Richard Rutzen of the Max Planck Institute has calculated by the end of the year the Northern hemisphere would be cooled by 2 de Grees celsius. Other experts dispute such predictions. But even one. Of them Richard Small of the Pacific Sierra research corp., told Horgan that a we have never seen a pollution event of this  damage he said might be Felt Over an area extending 620 Miles from Kuwait Saddam a forces of course actually set the fires and caused this immense environmental threat. He had plainly warned that he would do it however. So the United states by its decision to launch the War anyway rather than rely on non combat pressures bears some  administration insists it had no real alternative to War. But if environmental damage from kuwaiti fires proves As bad As pessimists predict the resulting damage and casualties May again appear out of proportion to iraqis offence. _ already a . Report concludes that Iraq has been bombed Back to the a pre Industrial age Quot its infrastructure destroyed its people beset by famine and disease. Was that degree of destruction unavoidable or warranted a a a a a a a a a a a. A a a a a a a a a a a _ a to free Kuwait a 750,000 nationals for another example the allies arc estimated to have killed More than .100,000 of the 18 million iraqis. John Allen a aulos of Temple. University the author of a in numeracy a compared that casualty rate with the population of the United states and found that had the tables been turned More than 1.4 million americans would have died in the same period. It As fool environmental damage Joel s. Levine of Nasa a authority on biomass burning told Horgan the kuwaiti Well fires were probably a the most intense burning source in the history of the  a a a a a a c the now York times a Leslie h. . Can t remain indifferent to iraqi civil War a an iraqi shiite who has devoted his life to opposing Saddam Hussein visited me monday. A i know what you would not do Quot he said Over bagels and Coffee. A you would not intervene with military Force in my country a civil War. I disagree yet i understand. But what do you think the United states should do to Stop the killing of shiites and kurd Short of such intervention. His distinction is important. I still be Lieve that the worst thing for americans and iraqis is for the United states to be drawn into the tribal and religious warfare there. But the second worst thing would be to do nothing at All. President Bush in his Zeal to avoid the prime sin of military intervention is committing the second sin of almost total passivity. Passivity dangerously and erroneously signals a willingness to live with Saddam. It also suggests a cynical indifference toward kurd and others after having incited their rebellion. At a minimum Bush should enforce the strictest interpretation of the ceasefire agreement with Iraq. That Means shooting Down iraqi aircraft and helicopters. The loophole that allows the use of helicopters for administrative purposes has become a general License. Bush promised to destroy armed helicopters and he should keep that Promise. As for destroying iraqi tanks and artillery that leads into the civil War quagmire. It goes Well beyond the , mandate and would embroil american forces directly in ground  should be no illusion How Ever that firing on iraqi helicopters will Levettie Battlefield Between Saddam and the rebels. Iraqis forces vastly outnumber and outrun the. Rebels. But Strong action in the air would Send a critical signal to the iraqi military. It would remind them that everything will be harder if Saddam stays in Power. That signal has grown far too faint. Iraqi military leaders could read faintness As a change in Washington a course As a new policy that Only Saddam can keep Iraq whole. J. 1 the Nightmare of be canonization has to be avoided. But Bush and his coalition partners have carried this Credo too far a to the Point of almost dropping the anti Saddam Ball. The Arah league compounded the Sig Naling error last weekend by letting Saddam a government participate at its meeting in Cairo Egypt. 7 there is another Allied signal to iraqi military leaders that needs strengthening you will be held responsible for your brutality. Let them worry about what that May mean in personal accountability and future economic hardships. _. _ the administrations failure to warn Iraq is shocking. The state department practically achieves rhetorical orgasms of condemnation every time Israel deports Pat Estinia  rarely condemns the filings of kurd and shiites ence fills the Halls of the United nations. The Security Council surprised it it by authorizing War against Iraq. It surprises few today by returning to Standard form acid scampering away from All responsibility for postwar iraqi turmoil. Of. The United nations does not mix into the internal affairs of its members. To be sure such intervention would open a vault of troubles. Yet the United nations has intervened with peacekeeping forces in the Congo and Cyprus and proposes to do so now in Cambodia. True it always has been at the invitation of the Host government. But regional organizations have been known to act without an invitation. Several West african states sent forces recently to impose a cease fire on warring liberians. My iraqi visitor wants no similar involvement from iraqis neighbors whom he rightly fears. And be knows Well the United nations great reluctance to intervene. Still he asks for some kind of help from the Agency some notice some  for refugees some words of warning to the butchers. The United nations can and should provide All. Maybe tuesdays French and turkish initiative though stalled can produce some action. Above All he prays for . Military intervention. But unlike the Savonarola of intervention who preach that american guns Are the easy answer to civil War he also realizes the magnitude of what he asks of Washington he smiles and offers one last Story about a kurd who said to a palestinian a i envy you. When you die at least the arabs the United states and the United nations  a c the new York times