From: http://www.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,8531-14687-104216-0,00.html?group=n ation - United States needs nemesis, foreign affairs experts say Copyright � 1999 Nando Media Copyright � 1999 Associated Press By LAURA MYERS WASHINGTON (January 17, 1999 10:41 a.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - The United States needs Iraq's Saddam Hussein - or another "bad guy" nemesis - to rally support for foreign policy and defense spending, world affairs experts say. Think of the recent past. The U.S. enemies list has included Manuel Noriega and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Today, in addition to Saddam, there are Moammar Gadhafi, Slobodan Milosevic and Fidel Castro, although the aging Cuban leader has lost a good deal of his evil aura of late. Iraqi President Saddam emerged as a top U.S. threat when he invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The move angered his Persian Gulf neighbors and more importantly endangered the smooth functioning of the world's oil supplies. The strike prompted President Bush to compare Saddam to Hitler and organize an international force to expel Saddam's forces from the neighboring emirate. When President Clinton ordered airstrikes against Iraqi targets over four days in December, he, like Bush, had overwhelming public support. Robert Gates, former CIA director and deputy national security adviser during the Gulf War, said Americans have been "conditioned" to see Saddam as a threat. "The heart of it, I think, is against America's favorite bad guy," Gates said, speaking of the Dec. 16-19 U.S.-British assault on Saddam's forces. A tangible enemy helps unite the nation and justify a massive military - 1.4 million strong and costing about $280 billion a year - equipped and trained to fight two regional wars at once if necessary, analysts say. The end of the Cold War officially put Moscow in the friend column, shifting the focus to new foes. "When the Soviet Union was the 'Evil Empire,' other leaders around the world could have attracted our attention but mostly didn't because we were so focused on the Soviet threat," said Robert Ebel, a national security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Now these other people have popped up in their place - the rogue of the week - whomever we are confronting now," he added. The administration targeted Iraq last month after Saddam refused to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors, required as part of the Gulf War cease-fire to ensure he didn't rebuild his chemical and biological weapons to threaten his neighbors again. Since late December, Iraq has challenged U.S. and British aircraft enforcing flight-interdiction rules over northern and southern swaths of Iraq. Iraqi pilots are flying into the off-limits airspace as Iraqi air defense sites launch missiles at the enforcers. No Western planes have been hit. Retired Army Col. Harry Summers said the United States has a long history of demonizing enemies, sometimes an entire population like the Japanese during World War II, but more often individual leaders. "It helps explain things to the American people," Summers said. "It always makes it easier to fight a war if you demonize people so that you're not killing human beings, you're killing the devil." In the case of Iraq, the Clinton administration is focusing its ire on Saddam partly because U.S. officials believe the Iraqi president's policies are harming his own poverty-stricken people, said Ebel of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "It's very easy for us to personalize the matter in Iraq. We have nothing against the people, just Saddam Hussein," Ebel said. It's a similar situation in Cuba, where Castro has ruled with a communist iron hand for four decades. Clinton eased a U.S. embargo against Cuba this month to allow Americans to send more money to needy Cubans while increasing people-to-people exchanges between the countries, direct mail service and the sale of food and agricultural goods to nongovernment entities. "The steps are designed to help the Cuban people without strengthening the Cuban government," Clinton said in a statement. Most foreign policy analysts say the U.S. administration should have eased or lifted the embargo against Cuba long ago but is reluctant to do so because Castro has been demonized by every president since John Kennedy and because of strong opposition by Cuban exiles in this country. "I think this is really a bankrupt policy in Cuba and has been for decades," said Robert Beisner, professor emeritus at American University, who is writing a book about U.S. foreign policy. "Demonizing Fidel for so many years makes it harder to reverse course now." -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] *********************************************************************** BIOWAR-L Biowar/Bioterrorism/Toxins Mailing List To unsubscribe or subscribe: send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text: unsubscribe BIOWAR-L or subscribe BIOWAR-L. Post to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Archive: <http://www.sonic.net/~west/digest.htm>. BIOWAR Web site: <http://www.sonic.net/~west/biowar.htm>. -Wes Thomas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
