A Dubious Explanation

Defiant in defeat, said Winston Churchill, magnanimous in victory. President Reagan would have it the other way around. In defeat he is magnanimous, absolving Iraq for its deadly attack on the Navy frigate Stark, blaming Iran instead because it refuses to end the 6-year-old Persian Gulf war. If Reagan had not earlier approved the inept scheme to supply arms to Iran, he would not now be trying to create his own reality to excuse the blunder of an Iraqi pilot and the policy of his masters. It is an injustice to the 37 lost crewmen of the Stark to seek to shift the responsibility for their deaths in an effort to curry favor with a regime that is Iran’s mortal enemy and America’s dubious friend.

The responsibility for the attack on the Stark is clear. It is equally clear that U.S. officials have a lot to explain. The admiral commanding U.S. naval forces in the Persian Gulf says the Stark was unprepared for hostile action because its officers had no reason to fear Iraq. That is a statement of astounding implications.

The Stark and other U.S. ships patrolling the gulf war zone are supposed to be serving the neutral purpose of keeping an essential international waterway open. They are not there in unannounced aid of an alleged ally, least of all Iraq, which far more than Iran has tried to sink non-belligerent ships. Who decided in these perilously uncertain circumstances that Iraq was no threat, that Iran was the only power to be feared and repelled? Who determined that the Stark should not be ever-alert to attack from either side?

Firm in its resolve, even if still muddled about its purposes, the Reagan Administration has responded to the attack on the Stark by moving additional war ships closer to the gulf. What it should be doing instead is demanding that other countries share more of the burden and the risks of assuring free movement of oil through the gulf. What it should be doing instead is forgetting about its ill-conceived plan to put Kuwait’s oil tankers under the supposed protection of the American flag. Until it can be shown that U.S. ships can protect themselves against a fourth-rate military power, it is imprudent to offer to defend anyone else.

The Stark, part of the Reagan Administration’s enormously expensive build-up to a 600 ship Navy, was armed with highly sophisticated military technology. In the end, its only warning of imminent attack came from the the visual observation of a seaman on watch, hardly an improvement over the system Columbus used 500 years ago. There is a lot to be explained about what happened last Sunday in the Persian Gulf, and there is a lot to answer for as well.