It seems only yesterday-actually, it was yesterday-that Kuwait was an integral part of Iraq, Province No. 19, depopulated and repopulated, now and forever Saddam Hussein`s. What a difference a month of bombing makes. Now he says he`s willing to leave with only a few minor conditions-like the withdrawal of allied forces from the gulf, Israel`s departure from the West Bank and Syria`s from Lebanon, the removal of Patriot missiles from Israeli cities, Iraqi reconstruction paid in full, no restoration of the emirate in Kuwait, the repeal of the international embargo against his country and of every Security Council resolution since last August, a cease-fire, two cars in every garage and chicken on Sundays. Of course this doesn`t include the small type.
If this offer has any significance, it`s that the enemy is cracking. When the United States and the world entered this war a month ago, to borrow a Churchillian phrase, it was the end of the beginning. Now that destruction has come hurtling out of the skies for 30 days and 30 nights, it is the beginning of the end-if America and her allies will keep bombing. That is the key to peace, and not any of the oh-so-serious conditions Saddam Hussein is attaching to his withdrawal. Hitler in his last delirium might as well have broadcast a demand from his bunker that, if the Allies would only stop advancing, he would hand back Poland.
One of the most encouraging aspects of American strategy in this war is that the bombs started falling on the enemy capital at the beginning-not at the end of the conflict, which should bring the end that much sooner.
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James R. Stockdale, now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, was a prisoner of war at the Hanoi Hilton by the time the bombs finally started dropping on Hanoi, and he remembers the effect on the North Vietnamese capital:
”I heard that city-which for years had generated a carnival atmosphere with loudspeaker music in the streets . . . go dead silent. And frequently in those few days I was eyeball to eyeball with those North Vietnamese authorities whose habits and personalities I had studied closely through 7 1/2 years as their prisoner. In that time they lost heart, evincing fright, despair, even solicitousness. The bombardment was light and the casualties light (dozens rather than the thousands per day common in World War II). But implicit in the bombardment`s persistence and power (the earth shook and the plaster rained down in buildings five miles from the impact areas) was the inevitability of its prevailing. Anyone there knew that but for American humane intentions, the bombsight reticules could be skewed a few degrees and everybody in that city would be dead by sunrise. That realization broke the will of a government, and that`s what war is all about. In only 11 days, the bombs stopped, and we shouted to one another, `Pack, we`re going home!` There was no question that we had witnessed a surrender. And not a question in anybody`s mind that the same thing could have been accomplished in any 11-day period in the previous nine years.”
Alas, the bombings then stopped, nigh-endless negotiations commenced, and the United States eventually left its ally to fight a ground war in Asia. The collapse of South Vietnam and the holocaust in Cambodia followed in slow but due course.
In this war, the allies depend on B-52s to blast enemy troops, and Saddam Hussein relies on CNN to bombard the American public with macabre pictures from Baghdad. Ho Chi Minh did much the same via The New York Times during the Vietnam War and it worked. American air power was soon hamstrung by unrealistic rules of engagement that spared North Vietnam`s strategic targets and command centers.
Saddam Hussein can hope to achieve the same result with the cooperation of Peter Arnett, who`s no Edward R. Murrow. Murrow won his reputation by broadcasting from London during the Blitz; it`s hard to imagine his passing on enemy propaganda from Berlin during Allied air raids. Even William L. Shirer, who broadcast from the Nazi capital as late as December of 1940, managed to make clear his distaste for his hosts. ”The Foreign Office still holding up my passport and exit visa, which worries me,” Shirer confided to his diary on the eve of his departure. ”Did my last broadcast from Berlin tonight and fear I swallowed a couple of times.” In contrast, Arnett will surely remain persona most grata in Baghdad. He is the enemy`s direct line to the American will, and it is air and will power that will win this war.
Saddam Hussein would have loved to make this another land war in Asia or, failing that, he`s now willing to settle for a long, drawn-out negotiation in Asia. The allied response should be unequivocal: No deal. Brave men and women have risked all in this war; innocent victims in Tel Aviv and Baghdad have died for no better reason than a guttersnipe`s surreal ambitions. Let us here highly resolve that these honored dead shall not have died in vain, and that the peace to come will be a real one.
Why not give air power time to reduce Saddam Hussein`s army not just to 50 percent of its effectiveness, but to 25 percent, 10 percent, or less before delivering the coup de grace on the ground? Let ground forces be used in support of air power, or to mop up what remains of the enemy after he has been deprived of food, water, ammunition, fuel, supplies and sleep. If there must be a ground war, let it be a quick war of maneuver against a pulverized enemy. At the rate Saddam Hussein is making offers, like a rug merchant in a bazaar, his price will get better with every refusal, or at least with every air raid. In the meantime, bomb away. Around the clock. What`s the hurry?
Why not leave the impetuous decisions to Saddam Hussein? He`s the one who`s in a desperate position, and he may even be starting to realize it. But can we summon that most un-American of virtues, patience? Particularly if every civilian casualty of allied bombing, real or purported, is going to be put on nightly display direct from Baghdad, and the airwaves filled with phony peace offers.
So little seems to have changed since Uncle Sam got suckered by Ho Chi Minh and assorted dupes. Ramsey Clark, for example, turned up in Iraq the other day, still loitering with intent to blame America first, last and always. Talk about deja vu.
The American response to this proposed replay of Vietnam should be simple: Never again.