European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 21, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse A thursday january 21, 1993 commentary the stars and stripes Page 15 one week before taking Power Bill Clinton made his first foreign policy Blunder weakening . Policy toward Saddam Hussein. He then made it worse by claiming falsely to have been misinterpreted when the record plainly showed the opposite. That is a sure fire Way to create a credibility Gap. Bush policy toward Iraq had been clearly stated a Hundred times Only if you get rid of your bloody handed dictator will we begin diplomatic discourse. The purpose of worldwide sanctions is to induce the overthrow of Saddam a genocidal regime. Last week in an interview with new York times reporters Clinton temporarily broke with that policy. No slip of the lip on five separate occasions the Clinton reversal of the Bush policy was a 1 i Rule out reviewing Bur options. 2 if you want a different relationship with me. Change your behaviour. 3 my Job is not to pick their rulers for them. If he wants a different relationship with the , and the ., All he has to do is change his behaviour. 4j the Issue Here is hot personalities. 5 All i can do is Deal with what i can see and that is his Tyve times did Clinton offer Saddam the Chance to let bygones be bygones if Only he would behave himself in the future. Mass murder was forgiven Quot in a a Baptist i believe in deathbed a. This dismaying display of calculated weakness imputing a obsession Quot to his predecessor for wanting to punish Saddam was accurately reported As a Call for a a fresh Start by Tom Friedman of the new York times. Friedman Winner of two pulitzer prizes knows a news Lead even when he is not handed it five times Over. As soon As this sudden and unconscionable forgive William Safire Ness of past War crimes appeared in print however Clinton began to have second thoughts. At a moment that called Tor National Unity and bipartisan support for Iii Tail action feeble As it was Linton was undercutting Bush by offering to do business with a a a converted Saddam Hussein. That was unseemly. Warren m. Christopher apparently Union suited when foreign policy is made around the Clinton Kitchen table began the Public backing away at his confirmation hearings a i find it hard to share the Baptist belief in redemption.�?�. At a subsequent news conference Bill Clinton denied reality. Asked about his indication of a the possibility of Normal relations a Clinton replied heatedly a everybody who heard those conversations was astonished that such a conclusion could have been drawn. Nobody asked me about normalization.,. The truth is that the reporters did use the words a Normal relations and a a normalization in their questions after this outburst of self deceit Clinton a press aides. Read inc transcript of the original interview and saw that his position was untenable. George Steph Nopoulos said must his Boss a inadvertently forgot that he had been asked that specific question about normalization and he regrets denying that it was lets stretch Charity to accept that excuse about forgetfulness. But there is no escaping his deception a there is no difference Between my policy and the policy of the present the truth is that Bush policy was to freeze out Iraq As Long As Saddam stayed in Power and for three terrible Days Clinton a policy was to offer a a different relationship. All he has to do is change his that was a fundamental difference in policy Plain to everyone. More important than his admitted mental lapse was his judgmental lapse that placed Clinton s 1993 Iraq policy Back with Bush a 1989 Iraq policy forgiving past sins and hoping to induce Good behaviour. Thanks to Linton s demeaning demarche Saddam Hussein almost succeeded in splitting the seam of our Transfer of Power. Most troubling of All was the pretence that no policy difference existed finally on sunday a1 Gore brought Clinton policy into line. If Clinton believed his pretence he was a into denial if he knew it Wasny to so he was being duplicitous. The Only Good in this embrace of pretence was the timing because he was caught out so soon Bill Clinton Learned before it was too late that not even the president of the United states can Force his wishes to be truths pm new Portt times vision pin. Clinton wanted and prom used to be i Domestic president. But he took office facing the worst foreign policy nightmares of any incoming president since the time of Vietnam. Serbia s Savage aggression continues in Bosnia and Herzegovina even As its Leaden say they Are ready for peace. The siege of Sarajevo goes on As do attacks elsewhere. Instability threatens the whole Balkan Region. Serbian leaders moved toward accepting a settlement last week Only because the growing anger of americans and europeans a and the approaching inauguration of Clinton a made outside military intervention seem imminent. It will take immediate and determined pressure from Clinton to actually Stop the fighting and see that any settlement terms Are kept. Iraq is a major and menacing piece of unfinished business. The latest . Air and missile strikes seem unlikely to end Saddam Hussein a capacity or his desire foe provocation Iran is buying and building weapons a possibly including nuclear weapons a even As it finances the spread of its fundamentalist politics elsewhere. The Arab israeli peace negotiations so filled with Hope Are stalled. Israelis self defeating response to Hamas terrorism the expulsion of 400 suspected or Mas leaders has put at least the palestinian talks on hold. There will have to be a new push from Washington. Russia is on the Brink of economic and political disaster. A parliament stacked with old comm a lists and conservative nationalists has hobbled economic Reform Boris Yeltsin has lost his hold on Public opinion. The country is sliding toward a chaos that would devastate the Hopes for democracy there and elsewhere. Other former soviet republics Are in a state of growing misery and instability. The most unfortunate is Armenia beset by neighbouring Azerbaijan its fuel and Power supplies Cut. Japan a relations with the United states Are the tenses in 40 years. Clinton has been urged by fat cats of the . Anthony Lewis Auto Industry to make up for their failures by putting punitive tariffs on japanese vehicles what the new president does will affect what is becoming this country a most crucial relationship. Then there is Somalia. Everyone recognizes now that if the american military intervention ends abruptly it will have done no Good. Somalia raises the larger question of How to handle political and humanitarian disasters in the third world. Americans would like the United nations to do More but that requires decision son such questions As a standing Military Force a decisions on which the world will be looking to Clinton to Lead. To list some of those problems is to understand How questions of foreign policy will press on the new president it is also to understand something about former president Bush. Bush made his claim to achievement As a president in foreign affairs. He exulted in being on Telephone terms with dozens of world leaders. His great moment in the White House was the Victory Over Saddam Hussein. But As he left his record looked thin. He responded too late to the menace of Saddam feeding the tyrant until the moment of the Kuwait invasion and then failed to finish off iraqi forces. He did not have the vision to understand the stakes in Russia and Eastern Europe As they struggled for democracy and Market economies. He turned away from the horror of serbian aggression. He delayed acting in Somalia and gave the Mission unrealistic limits the result was to leave a vacuum of leadership on Issue after Issue. And the world will not wait. If it is to avoid widening armed conflict Trade wars and human misery it must have leadership and that can Only come from Washington president Clinton must do More than respond to the particular crises awaiting him he has to give us a general sense of where we Are going and Why. In Short he has to begin articulating a rationale for american foreign policy a new vision to replace the cliches of the cold War. Explaining is important not just for its own Sake but to give american policy something it has too often lacked in recent years political legitimacy. To be effective in the Long run a president has to persuade Congress and the Public in foreign As in Domestic affairs. C the new York times
