22 - 28 February 2001
Issue No.522
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 22 - 28 February 2001 Issue No.522 |
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Routine blundering?
US President George W Bush and senior Pentagon officials described Friday's air raids against command, control and communication centres around Baghdad as a "routine" and "necessary" response to Iraqi provocation. British Prime Minister Tony Blair described them as a limited operation with the sole purpose of defending British and American pilots who patrol the two no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq. The US and Britain imposed the zones after the 1991 war, ostensibly to protect southern Shi'ites and northern Kurds from alleged repression by the Iraqi government.
More than two dozen American and British warplanes carried out the raids against what American commanders claimed to be five separate groups of targets, including 20 radar and air defence systems. The dull thump of the explosions shook Baghdad shortly after nightfall. Iraq claimed that the Western planes targeted populated areas, killing three civilians and wounding some 30 others.
Baghdad reacted furiously. An official statement by the Revolutionary Command Council broadcast on Iraqi television described the attacks as "a new, savage crime which will not go unpunished by decisive retaliation." "We will fight them in the air, on land and at sea and their aggression will achieve nothing but failure," threatened the statement, which followed a meeting in which Saddam and his officials discussed possible ways to retaliate. The Iraqi statement also blasted Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for providing bases to the anti-Iraq coalition forces.
The return of US and British bombing to the vicinity of Baghdad immediately drew angry response from most Arab countries, as well as from governments outside the region. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said "the strikes and the death of innocent civilians further complicate the situation" in the region. The Arab League said the first Western raids on the Iraqi capital since December 1998 had violated international law and would fuel anger across the Arab world. Syria, Jordan Algeria, Libya and Tunisia all denounced the raids. Russia and China protested the attack, while a third permanent member of the UN Security Council, France, charged that the strikes were unwarranted. Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Cuba and even Turkey, a staunch regional ally of the US and Britain, strongly criticised the strikes. Gulf states with close ties to Britain and America, meanwhile, failed to wholeheartedly endorse Friday's military action. Israel was the only country which expressed understanding, saying that the country that occupied Kuwait in 1990-91 still poses a threat, as it is rebuilding its military.
Demonstrators took to the streets in several parts of the world to protest US and British air strikes; in Taiwan, the United States and Palestine
(photos: AFP)
It seems unlikely that either Washington or London will heed the criticism, as Washington seems bent on introducing a new, tougher American policy on Saddam's Iraq. Throughout his election campaign, Bush claimed that the Clinton administration's policy towards Iraq was bankrupt, sending strong signals that he intended to strengthen the UN economic embargo and the two no-fly zones, even though the latter were imposed without a UN mandate. Secretary of State Colin Powell has reiterated this stance, calling for re-energising the sanctions against Iraq, even in the face of increased defiance and calls to have them lifted. Powell will reportedly try to sell this strategy to Middle Eastern governments next week.
The raids can be seen as a sign that Bush wanted to prove his hawkish credentials to Saddam. Only a few days before the strikes, the Pentagon leaked to major American newspapers that anti-aircraft fire against US-British patrols of the no-fly zones appeared to be more intense and better targeted. According to reports published in these papers, the Iraqi gunners were benefiting from a much clearer picture of the sky, thanks to rebuilt and improved radar installations around Baghdad. These reports also suggest that Iraq has obtained new SA-6 anti-aircraft missiles from Serbia and Ukraine. If true, one could ask whether Saddam was, in fact, trying to test the response of the younger Bush by activating the air defence units against US and British planes.
The tougher US policy towards Saddam's regime makes further military confrontation all but inevitable. Although Pentagon spokesmen insist that no further strikes are planned for the near future, intelligence reports leaked to the American and British press suggest that more are indeed on the way. The Observer, quoting informed sources, reported on Sunday that the raids signal a new series of attacks that will target Saddam personally.
The 10th anniversary of the Gulf War, once hailed as a great victory for then US President George Bush Senior, will be celebrated at the end of the month. But Saddam Hussein's persistent hold on power has cheapened that victory. With more countries flouting the UN embargo and calling for its lifting, the US policy of containment, intended by the previous administration to bring an end to Saddam's regime, is in tatters.
The details of a new Iraq policy remain unclear, however. One indication is that Bush and his team may want to enforce every aspect of the surrender signed by Saddam at the end of the Gulf War, including tightening sanctions and the no-fly zones. More backing to exiled Iraqi opposition groups has already been provided, with the stated hope that this will make life more difficult for Saddam. But the latest confrontation came amid reports of a division among foreign policy-makers in the new administration, mainly between hawkish Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, on the one hand, and Secretary of State Colin Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on the other.
Whatever, the outcome of this assessment it is to early to judge whether getting tough with Saddam and putting Iraq again on edge also means to get
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