Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 15, 1991 TAG: 9102150662
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It may be just a coincidence that the civilians were being sheltered in what U.S. officials describe as a busy military communications center.
The civilian deaths were in any case a tragedy. But if they were not a tragic coincidence, which of the following alternatives seems more likely:
That America targeted this shelter knowing it contained civilians?
Or that Saddam Hussein is waging a cynical propaganda war by intentionally placing Iraqi citizens in military targets?
This is a man, let's not forget, who once said he would place 5,000 foreign "guests" around military targets.
Who says he's using prisoners of war as human shields.
Who showers missiles on Israeli civilian-population centers.
The international coalition arrayed against Saddam at least says its policy is not to target civilians. It can point to scrupulous, painstaking efforts to avoid civilian casualties. Can the Iraqi dictator say the same?
Throughout his career, Saddam has shown little respect for humanity. His decisions to go to war with Iran, invade Kuwait and fight for it all have made sacrificial pawns of Iraqi citizens.
Saddam certainly gained from Wednesday's tragedy. The deaths have incited the war's opponents, angered the Arab world and inflamed debate. The bombing was a public-relations nightmare for the United States and its allies.
This fits Saddam's strategy. He must know he cannot defeat his enemy militarily. He is fighting, instead, to become a hero to anti-Western Arabs. He can accomplish that by causing many casualties among the allies and in Israel. With a ground war not yet under way, he has not succeeded on this front.
Or he can incur many Arab casualties in Iraq. That too, raises his stature and excites anti-Western sentiment.
Given these facts, it is far more likely that Saddam is using his own citizens as human shields, and sacrificing them for propaganda, than that American warplanes aimed to kill the civilians, as Iraq is suggesting to the world.
There are two possibly redeeming aspects to the tragedy. One is that Americans have gained a fuller comprehension of what war is about, in contrast with the mostly antiseptic view television so far has offered. The charred and dismembered bodies are what military spokesmen call "collateral damage."
In addition, by constituting a great success in Saddam's propaganda war, perhaps the tragedy may ease his way to a pullout from Kuwait. Gaining Arabs' sympathy and provoking their outrage has been his goal all along.
Whatever comes of Saddam's new diplomatic overture, whether it proves the harbinger of peace or another cruel ploy, let us continue to minimize civilian casualties, and let us continue reminding the world who ultimately - sometimes by despicable design - is to blame for them.
by CNB