Iraq seen from the right

National Review, Dec 22, 1997 by William F. Buckley, Jr.

NEW YORK, NOVEMBER 18

On the Iraqi business here is a perspective that drums in on conservative sensibilities. These are of course descended from cozy isolationist pockets of thought and sentiment. What they are saying now is: To hell with them. The extended version of that sentence/observation would read:

Look, we are indeed the superpower. In some situations, only our brawn can do the job. We have hardware, massively measured, that our allies don't have. If the leaders and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, and Russia were to plead with us to do a job they simply can't handle on their own, we'd be disposed to say: Okay, that's the way the world works.

But with the exception of Britain, they aren't asking us to do something about Saddam Hussein, quite the contrary. They are telling us to cool it. In effect, to do nothing. And in the case of France, they are doing so in a way that really drives us crazy. They are staring at the UN resolution, which says, in John-hit-the-baseball plain prose, that the UN is to "enforce" a continuing search for furtive ABC (Atomic, Biological, Chemical) arrangements within Iraq. The French elocutionist at the United Nations, as if delivering a lecture to the Academie Francaise, is rattling on about how the exact language of the resolution entitles us only to diplomatic measures, following a collapse of which the Security Council needs to be consulted for a fresh mandate.

If you take the French out of all that, it means: Let Saddam Hussein alone. Two French oil companies are starving to death because of the oil boycott. Uncle Sam should back off. Not only on the demand to have U.S. representation on the ground to investigate Iraqi paramilitary activity, but also on the heartrending insistence on the boycott that's costing the French millions of dollars in revenue. The Germans, though not so conspicuous in their opposition, have been sleepy about any military activity since losing two world wars; Italy loses itself in diplomatic double-talk; and Russia frowns on any act by the United States that serves as a reminder of the days when there were two superpowers.

So much for the first division of our allies. What about the Arab world?

The moderate Arab world is mad at us because of the behavior of Netanyahu. Egyptian, Jordanian, and Saudi leaders are saying to themselves: The Oslo Peace Accords are dead, buried by Netanyahu's obstinacy. We are relieved of any obligation to cooperate with Israel on an ongoing plan for productive coexistence. The situation in Iraq is very troublesome, granted. But we have this assurance: The United States will not permit the obliteration of Israel. Therefore, we can count on Washington to act at the critical moment. Pending that moment, we can hope for developments of this or another order. Maybe Saddam will die or be assassinated. Maybe the U.S. will look down the long barrel of history and recognize that it does really need Mideast oil and will find a way to, well . . . get along with Saddam.

WHAT especially enrages sentient America is that whatever Saddam is up to, America is the least likely direct casualty. If what he is spewing is toxic chemical or biological weapons, the range of his evil, however great, is unlikely to be transatlantic. Although Saddam engaged happily in a war against Iran for eight years, Teheran does not behave like a probable victim nor, incredibly, does Saudi Arabia, most directly threatened when Kuwait was overrun in 1990. Syria's Assad is apparently sitting this one out, confident of its immediate irrelevance. Except for the documented eccentricity of Saddam Hussein, the disinterested analyst can find himself saying: If the Saudis and the Iranians aren't so fired up about this situation, why on earth should Washington be?

Look -- the man way in the back of the room speaks up -- Israel has an a-t-o-m-i-c bomb. Saddam is capable of going to the brink but is unlikely to jump over it, because the maw of Tel Aviv is waiting there for him.

So the thinking goes. But the voice at the furthest end of the room speaks most resolutely and it says: A superpower cannot pretend it is other than a superpower. If it tries to do so, it loses its purchase on international behavior, and the price of that is conflagration. And there is no formula for staying clear of the effects of conflagration, even if it is apparently regional. Saddam Hussein has to be stopped, and the United States is responsible for figuring out how to do this.