Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050691
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: BARRY SCHWEID ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Having exhorted opponents of the Iraqi leader to rise up against him during the war, Bush stayed on the sidelines as desperate Kurds and Shiite Muslims rebelled, captured some Iraqi strongholds, and then fell to the government's superior forces.
The president denounced the way Saddam was treating his own people. And, in a traditional gesture, Bush on Thursday offered to "do what we can to help" the tens of thousands of Kurdish refugees fleeing Iraq. U.S. officials said that meant food and medicine.
Such an offer hardly compares with the effort to push Iraq out of Kuwait. And the anti-Saddam rhetoric probably will be no more effective than what Bush said last year about the annexation of Kuwait - until he sent in the troops.
In the meantime, a cloud hovers over the desperate situation.
Were the Kurds and Shiites led on to rebel with a presidential hint the United States would back them up? And are they now being let down?
Bush says no.
He told reporters in California on Thursday he had said from the outset of his own struggle with Saddam that overthrowing the Iraqi leader was not a U.S. objective.
"I've not misled anybody about the intentions of the United States of America," Bush declared.
The president's defenders prefer to cast the debate in terms of whether U.S. forces should open fire again, this time to help the Kurds and Shiites. "I don't think there is a single parent of a single man or woman who fought in Desert Storm who wants to see the United States pushed into this situation," Bush said.
Again, making it a war-or-peace issue, the president said he would not permit American forces who fought with distinction to liberate Kuwait "to be sucked into a war with Iraq."
Still, there are a variety of possible presidential actions short of going to war that might help the Kurds and Shiites in their struggle with Saddam. One would be to warn the Iraqi leader not to use helicopter gunships and long-range artillery against the rebels. Another is to threaten him with sanctions if human rights are violated.
Najmaldin Karim, a Washington neurosurgeon who met Thursday with State Department officials in behalf of the embattled Kurds, suggested also that Bush send an envoy to Iraq to meet with dissidents and that he welcome a delegation to the White House.
"Bush should make a clear and unequivocal statement putting pressure on Iraq," Karim said. "It's long overdue."
Throughout the rebellion, Bush has supported the territorial integrity of Iraq, meaning the administration does not want to see the country splintered. Also, the U.S. policy is designed to discourage other countries from intervening in Iraq's affairs.
But representatives of the rebellious Kurds and Shiites say they are not trying to tear up Iraq. They say they are fighting for democracy and protection against Saddam's repression.
The war is winding up while the debate goes on. "In sum, Saddam Hussein is now in control of all the major towns in Iraq," Richard Boucher, a State Department spokesman, said Thursday.
But the plight of Saddam's opponents - and simply of civilians caught in the cross-fire - remains poignant.
Thousands of civilians face murder at the hands of Saddam after U.S. troops pull out, an Iraqi academic warned State Department officials this week.
"They are dead men, women and children," Samir al-Khalil said. "I asked for them not to be abandoned."
Khalil told The Associated Press on Thursday that U.S. officials seemed to offer assurances that would not happen. "But they haven't the faintest idea what to do about it," he said. "What you have there is another Cambodia."
U.S. troops now occupy about 15 percent of Iraq. Khalil estimated more than 100,000 refugees were in those areas.
"I am convinced that if they are abandoned to Iraqi forces they will be murdered, utterly and completely," Khalil said. "I am terrified they are going to be handed over against their will."
by CNB