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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

House Republican Policy Committee
Policy Perspective
Christopher Cox, Chairman

New Evidence of Clinton's Failure Update:
Humiliation in Iraq

October 22, 1996

Last month, Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein:

destroyed a $100 million U.S. effort to unseat him, arresting and executing hundreds of Iraqis and Kurds who had cooperated with the United States against him--and who were left to their fate by the Clinton Administration in a second Bay of Pigs;

destroyed the "Safe Haven" in Kurdistan that the United States had promised to protect, reasserting Iraqi authority there for the first time since the American victory in Desert Storm; and

destroyed the Gulf War coalition that America had assembled in 1990, as nations that followed firm leadership from George Bush proved unwilling to trust weak and irresolute leadership from the Clinton White House.

President Clinton's supine response was to order 44 cruise-missile strikes against air defense sites in Southern Iraq, hundreds of miles away from the tragedy unfolding in the north. Then he declared victory--even as his own CIA Director conceded that Saddam had won this round.

New evidence now reveals just how hollow Clinton's claims of victory were. President Clinton's cruise-missile barrage was supposed to enforce an enlarged "no-fly" zone in the south, neutralizing the Iraqi military's ability to threaten U.S. aircraft patrolling south of Baghdad.

But on October 15, the Associated Press quoted a senior American military officer as saying that Iraq had already rebuilt its air defense capability as early as two weeks after the September 2-3 strikes. The Washington Post quoted a Clinton Administration official on October 15, 1996 as saying, "It is the same basic [system] that was there the 30th of August 1996," requiring merely "a flip of the switch" for the Iraqi military to target American aircraft. Our 44 cruise missiles--costing $1 million apiece--bought fourteen days of enhanced security for our pilots, and no doubt gave Saddam Hussein a lasting impression of President Clinton's resolve.

Meanwhile other governments beside Saddam's have moved into the vacuum left by the collapse of Clinton's policy. Just days ago, Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan launched a counteroffensive that has reclaimed control of the Kurdish city of Sulaymaniyah and much of the area seized by Saddam and Talabani's Kurdish rival Massoud Barzani in August--not with American backing, but with the open assistance of Iranian Revolutionary Guards. Saddam has responded by massing troops in the vicinity, and Barzani has openly stated that in the absence of American help he will rely on Saddam Hussein for support.

Iran's and Iraq's partition of Kurdistan marks another major setback for the Clinton Administration's stated policy of "dual containment" of Iran and Iraq. And it provides further evidence of the Clinton Administration's inadequate stewardship of American foreign policy. Both Iraq and Iran have bloodily persecuted the Kurdish people for decades. Why would Barzani turn for help to Saddam Hussein, who butchered Kurdish children with poison gas? Why did Talabani's Patriotic Union seek Iranian support for its counteroffensive? It seems clear that they did so because American support had proven worthless. As a result, in a key area of the world, two of the most violently anti-American, terrorist states on earth have filled the vacuum created by Clinton's policies.

Clinton's foreign policy has shattered American credibility in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein openly defies the United States, invading our "safe havens," murdering our supporters, firing on our aircraft, and continuing to conceal biological and chemical weapons and Scud missiles (as a U.N. Special Commission on Iraq confirmed on October 11, 1996). And our allies no longer rely on the U.S. for leadership and strength. Gulf War coalition partners are each going their own way in dealing with Iraq, and even the Kurdish factions who once looked to America now trust Iraq and Iran more than they trust the United States.

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Created by the House Republican Policy Committee,
please send comments to tcremer@hr.house.gov.
Last updated October 22, 1996



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