Congress steps up to the war issue
Posted: July 22, 2002
Patrick J Buchanan
At long last, Congress may be about to do its duty.
According to the New York Times, before summer
ends, the Senate and House will call up secretaries
Powell and Rumsfeld to lay out the war aims and
war plans of President Bush.
These hearings are overdue. The New York Times
has already spread out on its front page an
invasion plan calling for 250,000 U.S. troops to
strike Iraq from three directions. From London
come reports that 30,000 Brits will march
alongside.
Following the New York Times report, Arnaud de
Borchgrave, veteran foreign correspondent, laid out
in the Washington Times Saddam Hussein's war
plans. They come down to this: kill as many
Americans as possible, before his life ends in a
Baghdad bunker.
During a June meeting of his two sons and war
cabinet to plan Iraq's response, Saddam reportedly
decided to let us land the first blow. But noting that
President Bush has authorized not only the
occupation of his country, but his assassination,
Saddam added that President Bush "has left Iraq no
room to be tolerant."
All the weapons in Baghdad's arsenal, including
chemicals and gas, will be used on U.S. troops,
while "sleeper cells" in the United States will be
activated to pay us back in sabotage and murder
for our plans to have Saddam liquidated in the first
days of the war.
Now this may be "Mother-of-all-Battles"
propaganda bluster of the kind we heard before the
Gulf War. But even if it is, and even if Congress is
only holding hearings to give itself political cover
before November, the great issues of war must be
addressed.
First among them is why. Why, when Iraq was not
involved in 9-11 and has never attacked us nor
used biological or gas weapons on U.S. troops, are
we launching this war on Iraq? Has deterrence
failed us? How so? And who is the aggressor here?
Presidents have often taken steps to provoke wars,
as in 1846, 1861, 1917 and 1941, but it has been
America's tradition to wait until the enemy
commits an act of war, before going to war. Why
are we abandoning the moral high ground?
Pre-emptive war is a tradition of empires, like
Imperial Japan at Port Arthur in 1904 and Pearl
Harbor in 1941, not in the tradition of a democratic
republic.
Second, how many U.S. dead and wounded may
we expect, and how many U.S. troops will be
needed to occupy Iraq? Will we be welcomed as
liberators, only to be reviled as occupiers? Will Iraq
become America's West Bank? Will we need to
re-institute the draft for soldiers to occupy Iraq,
while sustaining all the other global commitments
we have undertaken since the end of the Cold
War?
Third, how long do we intend to hold the city that
hosted the caliphate of Islam for 500 years? We
have been in Germany and Korea half a century, in
the Balkans almost a decade. What will be the
effect of an occupation of Islamic peoples by U.S.
troops – and by women troops of the U.S. Army?
Fourth, how will the war impact allies like
Pakistan, which has nuclear weapons; Turkey,
which is unraveling and hosts a rising Islamist
movement; Saudi Arabia, whose population is
virulently anti-American; Jordan, a Palestinian
powder keg; and Egypt? Should assassinations or
revolutions decapitate any of these regimes, the
war could spread and new demands could
suddenly be imposed upon depleted U.S. forces.
What are the anticipated economic consequences of
the war? Meltdown of the equity markets of the
West since Y2K has wiped out $5.6 trillion here and
over $11 trillion worldwide. An interruption of oil
supplies could send the economies of Europe and
Japan reeling.
What will be the strategic consequences? Will
China use U.S. preoccupation with Iraq to press
Taiwan? Will a desperate North Korea take the
opportunity to re-ignite hostilities with the South?
What will be the impact on NATO Europe – and
Russia?
How much will the war and occupation cost?
Desert Storm was paid for by rich Arabs, Germans
and Japanese. Not only will there be no other allies
than the Brits fighting beside us, there will be no
nations chipping in. With the U.S. deficit at $165
billion and soaring, what will the budget look like
after war is launched and the invasion begins?
What will be the impact on our markets?
One neoconservative columnist has urged Bush to
invade Iraq now, to give the stock market a lift.
Another urges him to launch a war before
November to help the GOP. Telling commentaries,
these, on the state of American conservatism today.
What will be the impact on American politics?
When wars begin, Americans rally to the flag and
commander in chief. But Korea soon cost Truman
his presidency, Vietnam cost Johnson his, and 90
percent approval ratings in the spring of 1991 did
not save George H.W. Bush, victor of the Gulf War,
from a crushing defeat in the fall of 1992.
Finally, Congress should take up the question: Is
massive U.S. military intervention on the side of
Israel and Ariel Sharon in the turbulent world of
Islam not exactly what Osama bin Laden was
praying for when he sent those airliners into the
World Trade Center?
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