Course Set for War, Kissinger Says
‘The Point of No Return…Has Been Passed’
December 18, 2002
BY IRA STOLL
- America is past the point of no return with respect to a war on Iraq, says the man President Bush wanted to lead a commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.
“We no longer have any choice except to go forward on Iraq,” Henry Kissinger told a high-powered group at a private lunch in New York yesterday.
He said he considered the question of whether the weapons inspectors find any forbidden weapons in their current round of inspections in Iraq to be “almost irrelevant.”
“The war against Iraq is an integral part of the war on terrorism. How else can we convince the Saudi Arabias of the world that it is too dangerous to collude in challenging the United States?” Mr. Kissinger said in remarks to about 150 of New York’s top businessmen and philanthropists gathered yesterday at the “21” Club for a lunch sponsored by the Center for Security Policy. “The point of no return with respect to Iraq has been passed.”
Mr. Kissinger’s analysis comes amid widespread confusion about and rampant misunderstanding of the Bush administration’s intentions regarding the regime in Baghdad.
On the one hand, a 1998 American law, the Iraq Liberation Act, states, “It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime.”
On the other hand, Mr. Bush’s secretary of state, Colin Powell, said in an interview released this week, “The person who will decide whether or not there will be war or peace is Saddam Hussein, and all he has to do is give up these terrible weapons that he has used to kill fellow Arabs, fellow Muslims in that part of the world, and to step away from his past behavior which invaded neighboring countries.”
Sources in Washington say the administration itself is split, with some factions, notably the Pentagon’s civilian leadership and the vice president’s office, pushing to liberate Iraq, and other factions, notably the State Department, advancing a disarmament approach that would proceed through the United Nations.
Mr. Kissinger himself made reference to the policy disputes yesterday in discussing the challenges of rebuilding Iraq after the war, warning against fighting “our internal Washington battles in Baghdad.”
“I just hope that we go through this period with a degree of unity,” Mr. Kissinger said.
Mr. Kissinger said there was some small chance that war would be averted by a change in Saddam Hussein’s behavior, but he said he considered that chance extremely remote.
Mr. Kissinger’s remark came on a day of developments on the Iraq front of the war on terrorism.
Iraqi opposition figures concluded a meeting in London, agreeing that their next meeting would be January 15 in Northern Iraq, the Associated Press reported. The White House spokesman and the State Department spokesman both praised the results of the meeting.
The top U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, is scheduled to offer a preliminary assessment on Thursday of the documents the Iraqi government disclosed in response to a U.N. Security Council resolution. Weapons inspectors spent three hours yesterday at Baghdad University, where they entered labs in the medical and biotechnology departments
Britain signaled yesterday that it is preparing to send a large expeditionary force to the Gulf to join American troops confronting Saddam Hussein in a final attempt to persuade the Iraqi president to surrender his weapons of mass destruction.
Tanks and advance parties of more than 20,000 British troops will begin moving to the Middle East within weeks, said defense officials.
The announcement came as American aircraft flying over Iraq began broadcasting a message to Iraqi troops calling on them to overthrow Saddam and promising the reward of an Afghan-style international aid package.
“Senior intelligence and military sources” in Turkey told the Associated Press that Turkey has plans to send tens of thousands of soldiers into northern Iraq if America attacks through the north.
The Turkish mission would be aimed at preventing a Kurdish state and stopping a possible flood of refugees, the sources said. American officials have apparently asked for Turkish permission to send tens of thousands of American soldiers through Turkey into Iraq if there is a war, the AP said.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi government news agency reported that, under Saddam Hussein’s direction, a convoy of 40 trucks carrying “fertilizer” had left Baghdad for “Palestine.” Fertilizer is a common ingredient in bombs. The Iraqi government wire service reported that the “head of the Palestinian peasants union hailed president Hussein’s generous gesture, pointing out that the agricultural sector in Palestine is severely damaged due to the Zionist entity’s oppressive measures and the destruction of the agricultural infrastructure.”
Also yesterday, the American Defense Department said it has launched radio broadcasts over Iraq that officials say are aimed at weakening support for Saddam.
U.S. Air Force EC-130E Commando Solo planes since December 12 have been broadcasting messages into Iraq. A Defense Department spokesman stressed the planes are not flying in Iraqi airspace, not even in the no-fly zones in the country’s north and south.
At least nine separate messages are being broadcast at various times of day, the Defense Department said. Leaflets dropped over the country advise people what frequencies to tune to, the Defense Department said.
Messages aimed at Iraqi soldiers advise them that Saddam Hussein tarnishes their reputation by using the military to “persecute those who don’t agree with his unjust agenda.”
“Saddam uses his soldiers as puppets, not for the glory of Iraq,” one message states. It informs soldiers that Saddam put land mines behind Iraqi soldiers fighting in the desert during the Gulf War so they couldn’t retreat.
“Will your unit be the next one sacrificed?” one message asks, according to the Defense Department. “When will the Iraqi army become a legitimate army of the people and not serve as bodyguards for Saddam’s regime?”
A message aimed at the Iraqi public compares Saddam with Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. “In the end, the world has paid a higher price for not stopping men like Stalin when they had the chance,” one broadcast stated, suggesting now is the time to stop Saddam, “before he destroys Iraq and crushes the hope of its proud people.”
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