Commentary

Bangs for the Masses

SAUDI ARABIA, Yanbu Al Sinaiyah. CNN has just released their report on the second United States cruise missile strike on Iraqi air defense systems. This action is worthless and unnecessary. In fact, there was no need for the first attack on the third of September. When you are here in the Middle East it becomes painfully obvious what a complete waste of resources this has been. The attacks have provided no relief for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and have given no significant advantage to them in their struggle for autonomy. The truth of the matter is neither of the two attacks were of any use except for President Clinton to advance his position in the polls.

The necessity for these attacks has yet to be justified. The movement of three divisions, by Iraq, into the northern section of the country does not come under the list of no no's that the United States is instantly allowed to react upon. In actual fact, the no fly zone has been sanctioned by a coalition of nations, not the executive branch of the United States government. Granted, the USA generally accepts a larger part of the tab and flexes more of their muscles when it comes to such operations. However, this does not mean that the USA can disregard the fact that it is still a joint operation between several countries. They acted prematurely.

The United States has moved the southern no fly zone another degree north in latitude and are now contemplating the implementation of a no drive zone as well. Perhaps a no osmosis zone or maybe even a no breathing zone is in order. This should put a stop to any unwanted activity in the country. Key word "unwanted." Why is the United States so concerned with a tiny little tiff in the Kurdish region of Iraq? No American is really concerned. Northern Iraq offers nothing. It has no oil, its people have had squabbles amongst themselves for millennia, the Kurds have been responsible for terrorist actions in eastern Turkey, and the only thing most people know about the region is that the poor Kurds are... What am I thinking!? Only one percent of Americans could even place this hell hole on a map. The reason the activity was "unwanted" and we came to the "defense" of the Kurdish people was for a gain in the polls by President Bill Clinton. Not as a humanitarian response to Iraqi aggression. The forces that moved into the northern region of Iraq were vast in number for the specific operation, but posed no real threat to stability in the region. They were not about to launch an offensive on any of its neighboring countries. The matter was purely a domestic one and the USA had no business in intervening in the way they did. Don't get me wrong. I like missiles and the things they do. I wished for nukes and some South Pacific islands in our staff Christmas wish list last year. But the next time you see the BATF attack another arsenal, would you expect the French to launch a couple of missiles at us? Anybody who has gone to De Gualle Airport knows they'd love to. If Saddam were to send tax collectors after the Shiites in the southern region of the country, do we send the Marines in for an amphibious assault? It was a domestic situation and we have no business dictating to a dictator whether or not he can kill his people. We have infringed on that nation's sovereignty.

The best part of the CNN broadcast is when they showed the American opinion of the missile attacks. Every last one was favorable. Americans are suckers for weapons that don't involve our boys, that you can watch on television and that make a big boom. Clinton ate this up. He launched not only a single attack, and when the ratings from the first newscast came back, he had another done for good measure.

The reaction here in the Middle East has been one of remorse, but discretely positive. Enough remorse in fact, that the number of missiles has varied in newspapers, always fewer than the American and British claims though. Most Middle Eastern countries won't speak out against the attack because without US planes the Middle East would be a lot more volatile. The remorse they feel is because they see the United States interfering in the domestic actions of an Arab country, even if it is Iraq. "Will the USA begin interfering with the internal affairs of other Middle Eastern countries?" is the question in the eyes of many Arab nations. Here in Saudi Arabia they would rather foreigners go away altogether, but realize their economy would start to resemble a toilet on an Air India flight without our help.

A simpleton of a journalist appeared on the tube and postulated, no wait he wondered, why the United States had failed to remove Saddam from power during the Gulf War. This is the same person who believes that if you just wash a rotten egg down the sink without turning the garbage disposal on, it will cause the stench to go away. If Saddam were ousted there would be two of these smells.

Firstly, Saddam was never removed from power so Iraq would act as a buffer to a much bigger crazier psychopath of a bully, known as Iran. People seem to forget that these two nations fought for almost a decade during the eighties. Many western powers supported Saddam in order for him to halt the advance of Islamic fundamentalism and keep Persian Gulf oil supplies safe.

People have seen the horrors of the conflict between ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia. We saw the results of genocide carried out during the conflict in Bosnia. A couple of us took note of Azerbajani Muslims fighting Armenian Christians in the former Soviet Union. Without Saddam and his reasonably sized military in control, the seven major ethnic groups of the country would turn on one another and the bloodbath in Bosnia would seem minuscule. Not only would these groups fight each other but within the ethnic groups the various factions would fight amongst themselves. As the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) are currently doing.

The use of force on Iraq in objection to their domestic matters is unwarranted and wrong. President Clinton's use of the attack to promote his status amongst US voters is an insult to the intelligence of Americans. Not to mention expensive. Being stuck here in a 120 degree heat I would rather things stay stable here. If a war were to break out, I'm sure we'd lose power and I would probably shrivel up and die as a result of no air conditioning.

Gordon Gilbert wrote this for the Oregon Commentator