A Thought for Perez de Cuellar

It’s possible that there may be no way to talk Saddam Hussein out of his arrogant defiance of world opinion, no rational argument that will prompt him to start the withdrawal of his troops from the violated Kuwait, no discourse that will detour the Iraqi dictator from the path of war on which he seems determinedly to have planted his foot. With the massive buildup of military forces and arsenals in the Persian Gulf region, the situation looks to have careened out of the control of the peacemakers--as perhaps failed Arab League efforts first showed--and passed into the hands of the warriors.

But the world can’t yet be satisfied that every diplomatic route has been tried and found wanting. Some chance may yet remain for reason to prevail, some chance may yet remain that the lives of thousands of young military people on both sides--not to mention the lives of innocent civilians--can be spared.

A more serious and active role for U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar is urgently needed. On Friday Perez was raising legalistic questions about the validity of a U.S. naval blockade of Iraq. But might it not be a better use of his office and its prestige if he were immediately to fly to Baghdad to meet with Saddam Hussein and press the case for ending aggression?

Time is not on the side of a diplomatic solution. With each passing day and each addition to the buildup of men, ships and arms, feet dig in deeper and attitudes harden. But peacemakers are still to be blessed even when their best efforts don’t succeed; the possibility, even the probability of failure must not keep them from trying. The world created the United Nations precisely to save mankind from “the scourge of war,” and the office of secretary general exists precisely as an instrument of diplomacy. The respected Perez is entitled to his opinions about the blockade. But the world needs a more active peacemaking role from the secretary general.

Perhaps Hussein would turn back a Perez mission. So be it. But then the world would know with even greater certainty what manner of tyrant Saddam Hussein is. A Perez mission is worth a try. For certainly there is nothing to lose by one last go at diplomacy, one final effort to give the sanity of peacemaking precedence over the destructive madness of war.