Exode (des Kurdes d'Irak) - Institut kurde de Paris

•• , • '. '.' •• 0 ••••••
REVUE DE PRESSE~PRESS REVIEW~BERHEVOKA ÇAPÊ~RMsrA STAMPA~DENTRO DE LA PRENSA~BASIN ÖZETi
I
ESSAY IWilliam Safite
Bush's Moral Crisis
W
WASHINGTON cessation was the national security
y did all the weight of the adviser, Brent Scowcroft, not happy,
Bush Administration come about leaving the job half done, arid:
down on General Schwarzkopf
for revealing that the decision to about the President's credibility with
Vice President Quayle; concerned:
abort the war a day too soon was not the rebels and the world. Defense
unanimous - or as the general.later Secretary Cheney, in light of General
half-clarified, not as originally Powell's reminder about losing lives,
planned?
in Lebanon, zipped his lip.
The reason is that the pre-decision Result: President Bush wavered,
disagreement within the National Security
Council was supposed to be go home. He flip-flopped on his pledge
then decided to cut his winnings and'
kept secret. ,
to shoot down Iraqi gunships, leaving
No President lightly consigns thousands
of human beings to certain ity." In the name of realpolitik, he
his spokesmen admitting "ambigu-
death. He had personally and publicly made our forces bear shamefaced'
assured the Kurdish and Shiite rebels witness to the bloodletting now under
that Saddam's gunships would be way.
grounded; his generalon the scene Must history remember George
admitted he had been "suckered" Bush as the liberator of Kuwait and
into agreeing to let them fly. the man who saved Iraq for dictatorship?
Preserving Saddam I or plant- '
When a decision is made to place
cool pragmatism above morality - Ing Saddam Il would have other
in this case" to ,accept historic accountability
for choosing military dic-
Kurds now know they can get killed
costs: People like the too-trusting
tatorship over a less orderly system by relying on Mr. Bush's assurances.
of self-determination - the President U.S. troops will return home with a
expects his advisers to close ranks, to sense of shame at the bloodletting'
"sign on" to the decision. Nobody is that followed our political sellout.
supposed to say that the chief execu- Having refused to impose the op- :
portunity for the rudiments of democracy
in what we left of Iraq, Mr. Bush i
would then presume to impose. his
settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute.
Good luck.
Level
for one bright, shining moment we
the killing
had a President who made the White
House pre-eminently a place of moral
field.
leadership. George Bush did not go to
war primarily for oil, or for jobs, or ,
even for protection against incipient
attack'; his decision to liberate Ku.
tive was torn between what was expedient
and what was right.
ciple, to right a wrong,in a world too
wait was bottomed on hardrock prin-
. Rules of deep background preclude accustomed to accommodating imperial
wrongdoing.
me from attributing this' to any
sources other than my own imagination,
but here were the conflicting will to use power, carried the day,
That moral courage, backed by the
forces: . rolling over contrary opinion, emboldening
the coalition, vitiating the
The strongest voice for ending the
shooting before Saddam Hussein's will to fight of the Iraqi troops. It
army' was destroyed 'was Colin Powell,
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. it was right.
wasn't "self-righteousness" after all;
True to his Weinberger training, he Now that same feeling for a moral
did not want us to be blamed for world order demands we give the
overkill, or to be drawn into responsi- people of Jraq a last chance for freedom.
We are there, occupying a fifth
,bility for replacing Saddam Hussein;
he wanted U.S. troops withdrawn before
American public opinion became tunity for a federation of autonomous
of the country; we created the oppor-
Impatient or terrorists hit.
peoples; we cannot creep away with
Supporting this was the State De- our internal allies exposed to Soviet.
artment's James Baker, influenced made aircraft and tanks.
eavily by Saudi Arabia's Prince l\;Jr.Bush still has time to say: "No
~
andar .. Reasoning: only a Sunni, more population-killers. Our aircraft
M.oslem inilitary dictator in Baghdad will destroy any plane or chopper or ,
would be stable enough to provide a tank or heavyartillery that moves. I
balancé against Iran, and a U.S.-imposed
democracy might split into knives In a primitive form of self.
fight if you must, but with rifles and
Ll1ree nations. (Later. influential Is=raelis
agreed, based on the selfish Why wobble now? If we are ,too ,
determinatiûn."
concern that Kurdish Independence timid to Impose democracy, we owe It ,
might lead to Palestinian statehood.) to our sense of right and.wrong to at'
Mlld!y, C?Pposlng t~i~?pJ:e.~atur,e least level the killing field. 0 ,
9
I