U.S. Policy Failure – Iraq Scores Diplomatic Victories

Iraq scored two big victories this month regardless of the outcome of the current negotiation.

First, Saddam shifted the international debate about UN weapons inspections from uncovering Iraqi acquisition of weapons of mass destruction to the composition of the UN inspection team. President Clinton has wasted enormous diplomatic effort simply trying to restore status quo ante – American inspectors trying to ferret out what Saddam assiduously hides.

Iraq scored two big victories this month regardless of the outcome of the current negotiation.

First, Saddam shifted the international debate about UN weapons inspections from uncovering Iraqi acquisition of weapons of mass destruction to the composition of the UN inspection team. President Clinton has wasted enormous diplomatic effort simply trying to restore status quo ante – American inspectors trying to ferret out what Saddam assiduously hides. Lost is the international agreement that these inspections are useful only to the extent that they actually render Iraq incapable of producing weapons of mass destruction.

Second, in some circles, including the Administration, Israel is being at least partially blamed for the crisis. A sample of recent newspaper columns reflects the debate.

Tom Friedman in The New York Times opined: “The ability of Arab leaders [to stay in the anti-Saddam coalition] will be influenced in part by public opinion… Mr. Netanyahu doesn’t have to give the Palestinians a state tomorrow, just to satisfy the Arab street. But he could buy the U.S. a lot more room to maneuver – and therefore improve Israel’s overall strategic situation – by implementing the long-delayed redeployment of Israeli forces.”

The New York Post responded: “You would think the US would know enough by now to forget about the Arab street and find an alternate route to responsible leadership. The State Department’s fantasy is that, if Saddam can point to a more ‘evenhanded’ (read: anti-Israel) American attitude towards Jerusalem, he be able to back off from a war without losing face with the Arab street that so loves him… In essence, State is demanding that Israel compromise its safety and sovereignty to make US negotiations with the Butcher of Baghdad a little easier.”

Cal Thomas of The Washington Times added: “Israel’s supposed ‘friends’ aren’t helping much. The president of the United States – who warmly welcomed China’s dictator president to America – has snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his visit this week. What this is supposed to achieve no one is saying. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright used an economic conference in Qatar to blame Israel for the ‘dire’ economic conditions in Gaza and the West Bank, forgetting that Arab nations for years blocked economic aid to the region to that Palestinians might be used as pawns…” The problem isn’t Israel. It is America’s unwillingness to pursue the policy of demilitarizing Iraq to a firm and logical conclusion.

The Wall Street Journal editorialized: “By trying so hard to be sensitive to ‘Arab concerns,’ the Administration has given credence to those who charge that American policy is about something other than right and wrong and encouraged them to continue playing the Arab race card…

“It wasn’t supposed to turn out this way, with Saddam jerking around the civilized world. One of the explicit reasons for the U.S. decision to focus on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process after the Gulf War was to isolate Iraq and Iran and unite the West behind a vision of the ‘new Middle East.’ It’s now obvious that the decision to leave the Iraqi matter to the Security Council has left Saddam with plenty of chemical and biological weapons and the means to deliver them. We can only wonder what might have been had they concentrated on the real bad guy in the first place, instead of moving heaven and earth trying to chase the Israelis from Gaza and the West Bank.”