12/12/2002
Comments Following the Gulf War
I saved some copies of Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report following the conclusion of the Gulf War back in 1991. The comments that were made then are interesting in light of current developments.
You’ll recall that the ground war came to an end after 100 hours on February 28. The air war that preceded this lasted about six weeks.
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[Newsweek, 3/11/91]
--On President George H.W. Bush’s victory: “(It is) a triumph of almost Biblical proportions – his enemy slain in countless numbers, his own soldiers hardly touched by the battlefield’s scouring wind. His standing in the polls soared to even higher levels; the latest Newsweek survey gave him an 89 percent approval rating.”
--On General Norman Schwarzkopf: Historian Stephen Ambrose commented, “He’d make a great candidate for president. He’s our first victorious general since MacArthur and Ike.”
--Saddam set 600 of Kuwait’s 950 oil wells ablaze.
--The U.S. sent 3,500 tanks against the surviving elements of Iraq’s force after the air war phase.
--As we were building up forces in Saudi Arabia (since August 1990), Saddam could have rolled over them if he had acted early.
--Comment on post-war energy policy. “The other element lacking from the president’s energy proposal is any real encouragement to conserve oil it’s also high time Americans started viewing the war against oil dependence the way they see military conflicts: as a fight demanding sacrifices from everyone.” [We only got worse, I’d think you’d agree.]
--President George Bush on February 23rd: “I ask only that all of you stop and say a prayer for all the coalition forces who this very moment are risking their lives for their country and for all of us.”
--Newsweek had the “Conventional Wisdom” column back in 1991.
George Bush: up arrow “Master of all he surveys. Look on my polls, ye Democrats, and despair.”
Norman Schwarzkopf: up arrow “Five stars ain’t enough. While you’re at it, why don’t you save the banks?”
Democrats: down arrow “Aaaaaiiiiiieeeeee!!! Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
Energy: down arrow “Bush’s energy policy is pathetic. So what? Fill ‘er up.”
--“But success left Bush feeling a little blue. On Friday, when a reporter noted at a news conference that the president seemed ‘somber,’ Bush conceded that he didn’t yet share ‘this wonderful euphoric feeling’ that had swept up so many of his countrymen. He recalled World War II, the first great crusade of his life. ‘There was a definitive end to that conflict,’ he said. But in the Persian Gulf War, ‘we have Saddam still there, the man that wreaked this havoc upon his neighbors. We have our prisoners still held. We have people unaccounted for.’ Once all that was straightened out, there would be time for good feelings. ‘I’ll get there,’ said the president.”
--George Will: “Today George Bush stands at the sort of pinnacle few presidents have experienced. He has earned the nation’s trust and, almost as important, he has the nation’s attention. This is a perishable moment, and a propitious moment to say: As we welcome home the heroes from their sacrifices, let us make some symmetrical sacrifices to make this a land fit for heroes. The business of America is not business. Neither is it war. The business of America is justice, and securing the blessings of liberty.”
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[U.S. News & World Report, 3/11/91]
--Between Christmas and the start of the Ground War, Feb. 23 (eastern time), President Bush didn’t talk to General Schwarzkopf because he didn’t want to give the impression he was micro-managing the war, a la LBJ.
--Iraq was looking for an amphibious landing in Kuwait, while Schwarzkopf was attacking from the other side. 100,000 troops were moved to the west without any real detection, thanks to the fact that the air war had taken out Saddam’s ability to mount surveillance missions.
--Schwarzkopf adopted Stonewall Jackson’s long flank during the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
--By one early estimate the U.S. damaged or destroyed 4,000 of Saddam’s tanks. The Allies lost 4.
--Arab affairs expert Fouad Ajami: “No one can predict with any assurance what a new political order in the Arab world might look like. But this is an old and stubborn world. It won’t reinvent itself. The old status quo was given a reprieve. Don’t look for the Arab world to make great, new changes. After the storm, men seek their beds, relieved that an old order is given a new lease on life
“We have gone east to do what had to be done. In war, matters were simple and straightforward. We now go into a twilight, somewhere between war and peace, deep into a region that remains difficult for us to fathom, let alone reorder to our likes. To the power of a despot and a political cannibal, there was no local deterrent; America supplied that deterrent. But the work of making a civilization see its way out of its own thicket, of making it shed its own deadly dreams and delusions, is a matter beyond any foreign savior’s reach and power.”
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[Newsweek, 3/18/91]
--Conventional Wisdom, Democrats: Down arrow “Desperately seeking someone. How do you spell relief? R-E-C-E-S-S-I-O-N.”
--There was growing speculation that President Bush would drop Dan Quayle for Colin Powell.
--Secretary of State James Baker toured the Middle East in the aftermath of the war. While in Saudi Arabia an English- language Saudi newspaper had a headline, “Bush Pledges To Solve Palestinian Problem.” None had ever been made, but this was the impression then.
--From a report, “Now, the Arabs and Israelis seem to think Washington owes them something for the privilege of having saved them from their enemies. The Arabs want pressure on Israel. The Israelis, who absorbed the punishment from Saddam’s Scud missiles, feel they have earned the right to hang onto occupied territory – and they want more money from the Americans.”
--“The Iraqi dictator has never been in greater danger.” Ahem.
--You’ll recall that right after the Gulf War ended, there was a full-scale uprising against Saddam. Here are the comments from this time.
“After three days, Saddam’s troops began retaking ground, using tanks, artillery and rockets to indiscriminately kill thousands of fighters and civilians. The refugees described the resistance fighters’ position as desperate. ‘If we don’t get help from the allies, we don’t stand a chance,’ said a dockworker who fled from Basra. But reporters freed Saturday from captivity in the region said Army units had been demoralized and under frequent attack. Saddam probably can hang on as long as he retains the loyalty of his elite Republican Guard (which received big pay raises last week). But military leaders traditionally dislike suppressing internal revolts. If popular unrest keeps spreading, the Army may break ranks – and break Saddam’s hold on power too.” Doh!!!
--And a little insight into Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense. He vetoed taking out a huge statue of Saddam in Baghdad as well as Iraq’s garish war memorial because it was “gratuitous.”
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Lastly, on a lighter note, Saddam was expected to wage “the mother of all battles,” which others then took advantage of. From the Toronto Star, “This will be the mother of all retreats.” The Boston Globe on TV coverage: “Images are the mother of all words.” A White House spokesman on James Baker: “(He will take) the mother of all trips.” London’s Sunday Times on the war, “ the mother of all routs.” What’ll it be this time?
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Brian Trumbore
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