DATE=5/5/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=JUDGING SADDAM HUSSEIN
NUMBER=5-46278
BYLINE=ED WARNER
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Former President George Bush once described
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as "Worse than Hitler."
That was after the Iraqi leader had invaded Kuwait and
the United States was preparing to go to war against
him. At a recent Washington conference there was not
much dissent from President Bush's impression of Mr.
Hussein, but participants suggested that shunning or
isolating evil is not necessarily a useful foreign
policy. VOA's Ed Warner has this background report on
the debate.
TEXT: Saddam Hussein, still in power after years of
effort to remove him, was the focus of discussion at a
meeting of the Middle East Policy Council on Capitol
Hill.
David Wurmser of the American Enterprise Institute, a
Washington based research institute, said Saddam
Hussein is uniquely evil. It was not just a matter of
his invading Kuwait.
/// Wurmser act ///
This is a man who waged war on his own people,
and he used gas to do so. This puts him in a
very, very small group of people. That is really
a horrific thing to think about. And that is
talking only about the Kurds. We are not even
talking here about what he did to the Shiites.
/// end act ///
Graham Fuller of RAND, another Washington policy
institute, says Iraq under Saddam Hussein is the worst
regime in the history of the modern Middle East. Mr.
Fuller supported the war against him and expected that
to bring him down. When that did not happen, he says
it made sense to apply pressure on Iraq.
/// Fuller act ///
But let's face it. The policy has now failed. It
is not going to happen. The sad fact is that
when you travel around the Muslim world - in
Muslim Xingjiang in China or Indonesia - I find
support for Saddam Hussein. Now this is an
emotional support. The people do not know much
about him, and they probably would not really
like his policies. But does this not tell us
something?
/// end act ///
Mr. Fuller says the United States acts virtually alone
in maintaining the embargo on Iraq. There is no
consensus behind it. Observing the suffering of
Iraqis, Muslims turn on the United States, not Saddam
Hussein.
Ted Carpenter, director of defense and foreign policy
studies at the Cato Institute, says U-S policy toward
Iraq is adrift.
/// Carpenter act ///
Any policy that has the United States still
battling the same regime, the same adversary,
using many of the same tactics ten years after
an armed conflict is by definition a failure. We
have become reluctantly, but inexorably, Saddam
Hussein's jailer. We maintain the embargo. We
bomb periodically, largely because we cannot
seem to think of anything else to do.
/// end act ///
Mr. Carpenter says the United States looks like a
bully beating up a small country that cannot defend
itself.
///OPT/// But it is not easy for a democracy to change
its policy toward a leader it has demonized,
says Brooks Wrampelmeier of the Society for Gulf Arab
Studies.
/// Wrampelmeier act ///
It takes about twenty years for us to think
about moving beyond that demonization. It has
only been about ten years since the Gulf war.
How do we propose to improve or even talk to
Saddam Hussein without changing the whole
process that we have used to demonize him in
this county in the first place?
/// end act end OPT ///
Edward Peck, former U-S Chief of Mission in Iraq,
noted that the United States, when it suits its own
interests, has no trouble dealing with dictators. So
other countries tend to view American actions as
arbitrary, if not hypocritical.
/// Peck act ///
Who gave us the right to decide who rules Iraq?
There seems to be a fixation that the only way
for anybody to run their business is our way. We
call it democratization. By definition, you do
not impose democracy. It comes up from the
bottom. The rest of the world are not
necessarily convinced that our way is the best
way, let alone the only way.
/// end act ///
Ted Carpenter of CATO recalls that the United States
supported Saddam Hussein in the 1980's. Was he
suddenly transformed on August 1990 when he invaded
Kuwait?
Mr. Carpenter says a nation will pursue its interests,
even if inconsistencies are involved. But what, he
asks, are the U-S interests in its current policy
toward Iraq. (SIGNED)
NEB/EW/KBK
05-May-2000 16:05 PM EDT (05-May-2000 2005 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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