Editorials
The wailing game Sometimes elections bring unexpected results. But the real surprise of this month's largely inconclusive political brawl occurred two days after the polls closed. That's when the...
...That is not reassuring...
...Still, a spurious executive activism goes largely unquestioned in this sphere, one abetted by congressional timidity...
...But President Bush should not look to Moscow or the UN Security Council before he looks down Pennsylvania Avenue to where the recently elected (mostly reelected) representatives of the American people are paid to sit in deliberation upon such questions...
...That's when the furtive George Bush announced the deployment of at least an additional 150,000 troops to the Persian Gulf...
...He owes that to the American people and to the international coalition that has followed his lead...
...It was one among many egregious lapses of the recent election campaign that with as many as 230,000 American troops already in the Persian Gulf, no politician, at any level, thought it worth raising questions about our purposes in being there...
...The crisis has continued for nearly four months now and promises to remain relatively stable at least until the New Year...
...The troops now in Saudi Arabia have served, we believe, as a deterrent to further Iraqi aggression and they have given clout to the sanctions imposed by the United Nations...
...The "all-volunteer" armed services are made up disproportionately of the disadvantaged...
...The immunity of the privileged from military duty compounds the impression that crude economic interest is our principal motivation...
...Many people think that without further Iraqi provocation, no American military response could be moral, entailing as it would enormous casualties and unpredictable consequences...
...As we go to press (November 13), a Bush spokesman has just hedged a White House pledge "to work with Congress every step of the way" by adding that "there are always those unforeseen kinds of provocations that might result in having to move first...
...has been hired to do a job...
...That is more than enough time to allow Congress to debate the wisdom of Bush's policy particularly when his latest decision is designed to enhance "offensive" capabilities...
...Bush in radically amending, in effect discarding, the Constitution...
...But questions of ends, means, and proportionality are precisely the kinds of issues that need to be exposed to public debate, and which President Bush seems determined to avoid...
...That perception is further intensified by the suggestion that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia are paying for this military operation-that the U.S...
...Some fear that a national debate on our policy and ultimately on the wisdom-or want of it-of going to war would play into Saddam Hussein's hands as he seeks to encourage doubts and weaken international resolve...
...War can only be the final resort, not the first, or even the second...
...That is a dismal prospect for the men and women asked to risk their lives for their country...
...That is why patience with diplomatic pressures and with the sanctions and the blockade is critical...
...As Washington Post columnist Mark Shields has written, death in the Persian Gulf will not touch the lives of American elites...
...Given what is now known, that is our view as well...
...This is particularly so given the composition of American forces...
...This will nearly double the number of American servicemen and women facing the Iraqis, and represents a stategic and political move from a defensive posture to what the president described as an "adequate offensive military option...
...Ironically, Bush's initial patience and restraint in seeking an international political solution amply demonstrate the moral and practical value of such deliberation...
...These American soldiers should not be asked to face the divided legacy that confronted those who fought in Vietnam...
...President Bush needs to clarify our goals and purposes, and to put his case to the test of congressional acceptance...
...In these circumstances, unilateral escalation by the United States is unnecessary and unacceptable...
...There are costs to backing off in the face of Hussein's intransigence, but the costs of war are also great...
...Of course, he is not alone in this...
...The last time we read the document that Bush is sworn to uphold, it clearly designated Congress, not the president, with sole authority to declare war...
...But President Bush has not made that case, nor has he made much of any other...
...By some criteria, a case-possibly even a compelling case-might be made for waging war against Hussein and the frankly totalitarian Baath regime...
...Following the tragic examples of his recent predecessors, Bush boasts that he need not consult Congress, that war in the Gulf is a legitimate exercise of a president's control over foreign policy...
...Presidential power to respond to military threats has expanded greatly in the modern era, justified by the idea that modern warfare proceeds at a modern pace...
...The sanctions, the blockade, and the threat of worse to come must be given time to work...
...And with it, discarding, in George Bush's words, everything this country stands for...
...But that is the necessary risk run in any real democratic society, and it carries with it-in the prospect of a deeper, truly democratic consensus, whether for or against war-great strengths of its own...
...As commander in chief, he owes it to the young men and women about to risk their lives...
...If the Congress does not now assert its sole prerogative and responsibility to determine whether this country will make war-to debate whether war is necessary, justified, likely to succeed, what shall be its goals and whether they can be achieved by other means, so that the tragic option of war is truly the last resort-its leaders and members will join Mr...
...Foreign policy is one thing, a shooting war is something quite different...
...Whether war is a proportionate response to the invasion and occupation of Kuwait and, therefore, morally justified is the deeper, more difficult question...
...But no such emergency exists in this instance...
...Given talk of a new international order, it is encouraging to see Secretary of State James Baker consulting with our allies in the Middle East and Europe, and with the Soviet Union about the Gulf crisis...
...We know the answer- they will be shunned, hidden, and neglected...
...If Americans are unconvinced about and uncommitted to war in the Middle East, if they find after full consideration that our goals cannot justify the death and destruction that will ensue, how will they regard those who fought or died in such a war...
...By any standard, a rare kind of despotism has taken hold in Baghdad, one seemingly intent on extending its grasp until forcibly stopped...
...That sounds like war if Saddam Hussein continues his occupation of Kuwait...
Vol. 117 • November 1990 • No. 20
