An Attack That Makes No Sense

The U.S. bombing campaign against Iraq is an act of war not sanctioned by international law or by the U.S. Constitution. It is unlikely to solve the problem of Saddam Hussein’s weapons programs. But it is likely to kill many innocent Iraqis.

Twice in the last five months, just as his political future was plunging, Clinton has reached for missiles to hurl at Third World nations. Within 72 hours of his grand jury appearance in August, Clinton bombed Sudan and Afghanistan. Now, the day before he faced impeachment, he attacks Baghdad and other locations in Iraq. The timing of this latest attack is highly questionable.

So, too, is its legality.

Our founders gave Congress the sole power to declare war. Congress has not issued such a declaration in this instance. According to international law, a country can take unilateral action against another country only for the purpose of self-defense. But this bombing attack can hardly be called an act of self-defense. Saddam has not attacked the United States and does not pose an imminent threat to us. His nuclear weapons program, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, has been rendered inoperative by the U.N. inspections. His biological and chemical weapons programs have also been degraded. He has few missiles left, and none that can reach anywhere near the United States. At most, Saddam is a threat to his neighbors. But by now his military is not in the same league as Israel’s or Turkey’s.

Granted, Saddam has thumbed his nose at the U.N. over the years, but in the last month he has allowed some inspections. Though the U.N. Special Commission said that Iraq was not cooperating fully, the International Atomic Energy Agency was satisfied with its cooperation. But whether Iraq’s cooperation has been full or partial is up to the U.N. Security Council to decide, not the United States or Britain. And it us up to the Security Council, not member states, to decide on what action to take. As Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in August, “It is a U.N. issue, not a U.S. issue.” Magically, four months later, it has become a U.S. issue, not a U.N. issue.

The irrationality of the bombing is striking. Administration officials admitted in November that a bombing campaign would not eliminate Saddam’s chemical or biological weapons programs. And they admitted that as a result of the bombing, U.N. inspectors would probably never be invited back. These inspectors did more to eliminate Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction than 110,000 air strikes during the Gulf War. Clinton himself made this point in November when he called the bombers back. What has changed since then, except for his political fortunes?

The U.S. continues to punish the Iraqi people for the sins of a dictator. More than half a million Iraqi children have died as a result of sanctions, according to a U.N. study. And the casualties were continuing to mount, even before the latest bombing. “Four thousand to 5,000 children are dying unnecessarily every month due to the impact of sanctions,” said Denis Halliday, who resigned in protest as U.N. humanitarian coordinator in October. “We are in the process of destroying an entire society.”

How many thousands more will have to lose their lives now? According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon made a “medium range” estimate of 10,000 deaths from the bombings that were planned in November. And many more Iraqis are likely to die as a result of the havoc that war will wreak on Iraq’s health and sanitation systems.

Instead of strangling Iraq, the United Nations should have lifted economic sanctions while maintaining military ones and preserving inspections. It could have served as the monitor and handler of Iraq’s oil revenues, as it did with the fuel for food program, to ensure that Saddam did not siphon off money for the military.

In any event, Iraq’s questionable cooperation with U.N. inspectors did not give the United States and Britain a green light to go on a bombing spree.

U.S. policymakers justify the bombings on the grounds that we would lose face if we did not respond militarily to Saddam’s defiance. But we are losing our soul by bombing.