A packed audience of more than 150 people listened to a panel discussion on whether the United States should bomb Iraq in the Rockefeller Center's Hinman Forum last night. The discussion came in the aftermath of President Bill Clinton's cautious endorsement of the United Nation's deal with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday.
Government Professor Michael Mastanduno moderated the three-member panel comprised by journalist and historian Thomas Powers, military affairs specialist William Arkin and Government Professor Robert Pape.
The diverse mixture of Hanover residents, College professors and students stood and sat wherever they could find room and many watched from the Rockefeller Center balcony overlooking Hinman Forum.
Despite general consensus that the UN deal would prevent the US from bombing Iraq, Powers, Arkin and Pape offered widely varying viewpoints on the future of US-Iraqi relations.
The United States could not simply walk away from the situation, Powers said. He used the analogy of domestic courts to explain his viewpoint.
According to Powers, the threat of overwhelming governmental force and the government's ability to enforce court decisions deters citizens from attempting to ignore rulings. In the same way, the United State must use its military capabilities to keep Saddam Hussein from abusing his power, he said.
Powers said when a government uses force, it should make the goals and parameters of action very clear. He added that the major problem with the United States' policy in the current Iraqi crisis is that it has not stated any explicit goals.
Arkin advocated an entirely different viewpoint, however. He said bombing Iraq would allow Hussein "to win by losing." Any attempt to bomb Iraq would be "an ephemeral and subjective mission," he said.
Arkin, who said he has met the Iraqi president in person, stressed that "Saddam Hussein is not just a dictator." Hussein acts in the interest of the Iraqi people, he said. "Everywhere you look there are schools and hospitals."
Iraqi "weapons are not the product of a backwards society ... but a society who has survived U.S. bombing" and other hardships, Arkin said. It is important for Americans to remember that "we are dealing with a country with its own stature," he said.
According to Arkin, the United States does not want to lift sanctions against Iraq because it has labeled Hussein as a Hitler figure.
Arkin predicted that "there is going to be bombing, maybe not next week, maybe not next month, but I think six months from now we'll be back here discussing the same thing again."
Pape agreed that "the United States is highly motivated to continue inspection." He discussed the importance of U.S. air power in the Persian Gulf War of 1991.
"Air power caused Saddam Hussein to lose confidence in his military strategy," Pape said. Before, Hussein had believed he could deter the U.S. military because it and its allies did not want a "prolonged war of attrition," he said.
Pape predicted that "in the next few months there will be another round of criticism" of U.S. policy towards Iraq. However, he said the "Clinton administration should be applauded for making the very, very best of a very poor hand."
According to Pape, bombing Iraq would be ineffective because "even killing Saddam is not likely to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction."
Destroying sites would do "little good," he said, because "if a country can produce penicillin, it can produce Anthrax," the bacteria that causes Bubonic Plague. Even if the United States destroyed all biological weapons sites, it would take only several months for Iraq to restock its biological weapons, Pape said.
"We need to dramatically change our strategy," Pape said. "It's a futile goal to prevent Iraq from getting weapons of mass destruction."
Instead, Pape proposed his own solution. He said the United States should offer to lift all sanctions on Iraq if it would agree to purchase major artillery only with UN Security Council approval. This plan would be effective because it would be enforceable through air-strikes, he said.
