-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.registerguard.com/news/20020218/ed.edit.iraq.phn.0218.html
}}}>Begin
February 18, 2002
Taking the war to Iraq: Congress should question administration's intent
A Register-Guard Editorial
Recommend this story to others.
President Bush seems convinced that he has a mandate to expand the war against
terrorism whenever and wherever he wants, a frightening notion that invertebrate
members of Congress have yet to challenge.
Having recently dispatched U.S. troops to the southern Philippines to fight Abu
Sayaff, a group of kidnapping thugs that has more resemblance to the Ma Barker
gang than to al-Qaeda terrorists, Bush now appears to have picked Iraq as the next
U.S. target. Even Secretary of State Colin Powell, normally the soul of restraint, has
joined administration hawks ready to lock and load and march into Baghdad.
Earlier this month, Powell expressed his unqualified support for a "regime change" in
Iraq, which the president has identified as part of an "axis of evil" that includes
North
Korea and Iran. "This is something the United States may have to do alone," Powell
says.
He's got that right. If the United States takes military action against Iraq, the
behind-
the-scenes help that Washington has received so far from governments in the
Muslim world would disappear. U.S. allies such as Britain, Germany and France
have made it clear they have subzero interest in waging war on Iraq. Russia has
issued an explicit warning that Iraq should not be considered a potential target for
unilateral U.S. military action.
There are many reasons why stalwart U.S. allies in the war in Afghanistan are
digging their heels in on Iraq. They're aware that U.S. military action against Iraq
would cause the already substantial anti-American sentiment in the Middle East to
explode, endangering moderate regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and
elsewhere. The removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein could lead to an
independent Kurdistan, which would exacerbate Kurdish unrest in neighboring
Turkey and cause unrest in the region.
Hussein might well respond to a U.S. attack by using weapons of mass destruction
against U.S. forces and possibly Israel. There are serious questions about the ability
of opposition forces in Iraq to play the same role that the Northern Alliance played in
Afghanistan, raising the possibility of a massive commitment of U.S. ground forces in
Iraq.
Then there's the troubling absence of evidence to support administration hardliners'
contention that Saddam Hussein had a direct role in the attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon. Bush had reasonable evidence to back up his attack on al-
Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But so far, the president has failed to produce
any semblance of evidence linking Iraq to Sept. 11.
Powell has made it clear that the United States wants to overthrow Hussein because
of his refusal to allow United Nations weapons inspectors inside Iraq to monitor for
development of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq agreed to such inspections after
the 1991 Persian Gulf War but evicted the inspectors in 1998.
That was four years ago. Economic sanctions aimed at destabilizing and eventually
overthrowing Hussein's regime remain in place, and Hussein still refuses to admit
inspectors. Given that little has changed, it appears that Bush hopes to take
advantage of strong U.S. support for his successful campaign in Afghanistan in order
to correct the mistake his father made by ending the Gulf War prematurely and
leaving Hussein in power.
Iraq remains a serious threat that must not be ignored. But the job of dealing with
Hussein is not one that the United States should tackle on its own. Other nations
have shown their willingness to help deal with Iraq. Russia, China and Turkey all
have pressured Iraq to allow the inspectors back to work, and Baghdad, perhaps
influenced by U.S. threats, has communicated to the United Nations a willingness to
discuss the matter.
Members of Congress should pause from their preoccupation with all things Enron
and start asking serious questions about the administration's intentions regarding
Iraq - and about the overall direction of this country's campaign against terror.
Copyright � 2002 The Register-Guard
End<{{{~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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