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The Achille's Heel of the Iraqi Operation
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17169 |
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Section : |
EDITORIAL
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| Issue
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12 / 1990 |
782 Words |
| Author
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Morton A. Kaplan
Editor and Publisher |
Whether by the time this editorial appears in print the Bush administration's reaction to the invasion of Kuwait appears brilliant or something less than that, the operation reveals the limits of its conception of international organization. President Bush was able to organize a worldwide coalition against Saddam Hussein only because there was a clear case of aggression and sufficient direct interest in opposing it on the part of the anti-Iraq coalition. That may not be possible in even more dangerous crises in the absence of an appropriate international organization.
Saddam Hussein is within several years of possessing nuclear weapons. His plants are dispersed so that a surgical strike, if possible, will be much more difficult than the earlier Israeli strike. Because of the increased vulnerability of Israel, we cannot count on Israel to take these targets out.
Should Saddam Hussein, or some successor to him, or some other dangerous state announce that it has nuclear weapons - and it is more likely only to hint at this or to permit intelligence to leak - that will not create the same sort of clear circumstances or direct interests that are likely to permit a similar coalition to be organized either within or without the United Nations. And it will be too late if or when the weapons are poised to be used.
There must be a framework of policy and organization that permits quick action in these circumstances and, so far, such frameworks have been resisted by the Bush administration. The Security Council of the United Nations is too diverse, clumsy, and formal to suffice in this sort of circumstance. The Helsinki organization has too many
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