"If the past seven years have taught us nothing else, they have made one thing painfully clear: Saddam Hussein will never permit his weapons of mass destruction programs to be permanently eliminated." So says The Center for Security Policy. The scholars at the center argue that the agreement forged by U.N. Secretary Kofi Annan is doomed to fail. They also argue that any military action contemplated or taken by President Clinton will also fail "unless it addresses the root of the problem, namely Saddam Hussein's regime itself."
So what should the U.S. do? More and more foreign policy experts are calling for a strategy that strengthens those who oppose Saddam Hussein so they might be able to topple his regime. They call for American military, financial, and diplomatic actions that can achieve some success over time. Working with the broadly based Iraqi National Congress, the U.S. can reestablish an effective opposition to the Baghdad regime.
Here are a few keys points listed by Richard Pearle (who served as President Reagan's Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy). First, recognize a provisional government of Iraq based upon the principles of the Iraqi National Congress. Second, restore and enhance the safe haven in northern Iraq to allow the provisional government to extend its authority there. Third, lift sanctions in liberated areas. And fourth, release frozen Iraqi assets to the provisional government to fund its insurrection.
These steps are not without their dangers, but such a plan does have a better chance of success than the current UN agreement, and does not cost American lives which would surely be the case it we deploy ground troops. Saddam Hussein must be stopped, and this plan at least has some possibility of achieving that end.
I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.
© 1998 Probe Ministries International