Fighting to win in Iraq
By Jeff Jacoby
"As secretary of state from 1989 to 1992, James Baker was involved in some of the worst foreign-policy blunders of the first Bush administration.
One such blunder was the administration's stubborn refusal to support independence for the long-subjugated republics of the Soviet Union, culminating in the president's notorious 'Chicken Kiev' speech of August 1991, when he urged Ukrainians to stay in their Soviet cage. Another was the appeasement of Syrian dictator Hafez Assad during the run-up to the Gulf War in 1990, when Bush and Baker blessed Syria's brutal occupation of Lebanon in exchange for Assad's acquiescence in the campaign to roll back the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
When Chinese tanks massacred students in Tiananmen Square, Bush expressed more concern for the troops than for their victims: 'I don't think we ought to judge the whole People's Liberation Army by that terrible incident,' he said. When Bosnia was torn apart by violence in 1992, the Bush-Baker reaction was to shrug it off as 'a hiccup.'
Worst of all was the betrayal of the Iraqi Shi'ites and Kurds who in the spring of 1991 heeded Bush's call to 'take matters into their own hands' and overthrow Saddam Hussein -- only to be slaughtered by Saddam's helicopter gunships and napalm while the Bush administration stood by. Baker blithely announced that the administration was 'not in the process now of assisting . . . these groups that are in uprising against the current government.' To Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s plea that some of the 400,000 US troops in the area put a halt to the massacre, Bush dismissively replied, 'Always glad to have his opinion. Glad to hear from him.' Then he went fishing in Florida.
If Bush the Elder is remembered for a rather heartless and cynical foreign policy, then much of the credit must go to Baker. And what Baker did for the father, he is now poised to do for the son." Read on....
"As secretary of state from 1989 to 1992, James Baker was involved in some of the worst foreign-policy blunders of the first Bush administration.
One such blunder was the administration's stubborn refusal to support independence for the long-subjugated republics of the Soviet Union, culminating in the president's notorious 'Chicken Kiev' speech of August 1991, when he urged Ukrainians to stay in their Soviet cage. Another was the appeasement of Syrian dictator Hafez Assad during the run-up to the Gulf War in 1990, when Bush and Baker blessed Syria's brutal occupation of Lebanon in exchange for Assad's acquiescence in the campaign to roll back the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait.
When Chinese tanks massacred students in Tiananmen Square, Bush expressed more concern for the troops than for their victims: 'I don't think we ought to judge the whole People's Liberation Army by that terrible incident,' he said. When Bosnia was torn apart by violence in 1992, the Bush-Baker reaction was to shrug it off as 'a hiccup.'
Worst of all was the betrayal of the Iraqi Shi'ites and Kurds who in the spring of 1991 heeded Bush's call to 'take matters into their own hands' and overthrow Saddam Hussein -- only to be slaughtered by Saddam's helicopter gunships and napalm while the Bush administration stood by. Baker blithely announced that the administration was 'not in the process now of assisting . . . these groups that are in uprising against the current government.' To Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell’s plea that some of the 400,000 US troops in the area put a halt to the massacre, Bush dismissively replied, 'Always glad to have his opinion. Glad to hear from him.' Then he went fishing in Florida.
If Bush the Elder is remembered for a rather heartless and cynical foreign policy, then much of the credit must go to Baker. And what Baker did for the father, he is now poised to do for the son." Read on....
posted by HeavyHanded at
7:52 PM
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