Making War to Keep Peace Read Free Page A

from the free world, no small nation would have the courage to resist threats and aggression by stronger Communist neighbors. If this was allowed to go unchallenged, it would mean a third world war, just as similar incidents had brought on the Second World War.” 1
    Saddam Hussein’s invasion was not part of a global contest between two superpowers. But it was a clear-cut case of aggression, and Bush had to act.
    In fact, Bush was an activist. He hated bullies and was prepared to use American power unilaterally to bring them to order. When Manuel Noriega stole the elections in Panama in 1989, the Organization of American States (OAS) did nothing. 2 When Noriega “declared war” on the United States and murdered a U.S. serviceman in the Canal Zone, Bush moved quickly. He was not inhibited by the lack of an OAS resolution of approval and seemed little concerned when Democratic congressmen complained about the use of force without multinational sanctions.
    Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was a clear act of aggression across an international border, but in this case its meaning for the United States was less clear. Panama was in our own neighborhood, and the two countries had special ties. The United States had played a role in the creation of Panama, and the canal was built in large measure by U.S. citizens and with American money. Iraq was on the other side of the globe—not part of an historic American sphere of interest.
    THE FIRST POST–COLD WAR CONFLICT
    Desert Storm was not the war the United States had planned for. Before 1989, strategic thinkers had assumed a continuing political-military competition with an expansionist Soviet Union that was ready to exploit any weakness and profit from any crisis. Containing Soviet expansion and regional violence had been the principal goal of U.S. policy for decades. The Soviet Union had been our main adversary in a global struggle, but Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was not caused by Soviet expansionism.
    Iraq was neither an historic enemy of the United States nor a global power, but Saddam Hussein nevertheless posed a serious challenge. He was a ruthless ruler with a boundless appetite for power and an unlimited capacity for violence, a man who needed war like fire needs oxygen. He had made war against his own countrymen; for eight years he made war against Iran; now he made war against Kuwait. Saddam made no distinction between legal and illegal weapons; military and civilian targets; children and adults; men and women; Persians, Kurds, Jews, and Arabs. All within his reach were potential targets. His powerful army threatened the Gulf oil that was vitally important to Europe and Asia; his attack on Kuwait dramatized the vulnerability of traditional regimes in the area.
    Bush himself had a long-standing interest in the Persian Gulf, especially Kuwait. He had spent time in the region and knew the rulers and the oil companies. It was clear to him that something had to be done to undo the aggression. But this would be much more difficult than any previous use of force in his administration—it would be a global confrontation, with global implications.
    Until then, the United States had preserved normal relations with this repressive government, though Bush and most other Americans disapproved of the Iraqi regime for its autocratic character, brutal practices, use of chemical weapons against Iran, and repeated threats of violence against Israel. Bush had signed a Presidential Directive on October 2, 1989, that found normal relations with Iraq to be in the U.S. interest. 3 The Bush team believed that political realism sometimes required the United States to deal with unsavory regimes in the interest of strategic goals. Bush saw his policy as essentially a continuation of the Reagan administration’s; the Bush team and the State Department had hoped that a policy of cooperation would moderate the policies of the government of Iraq. 4 America’s principal