Friday, December 18, 1998

GOP critics of attack increase partisanship

Whether U.S. airstrikes force Saddam Hussein to comply with U.N. weapons inspections remains to be seen, but two things are now clear. One, bombing Saddam was the right thing to do. Two, the nation has seen a new level of partisanship from congressional Republicans that will raise more questions about the motives behind their imminent impeachment of President Clinton.

A month ago, the United States was poised for a strike on Iraq that was called off after a last-minute conversion by Saddam, who promised to cooperate with the U.N. Special Commission in charge of Iraqi disarmament. This is your last chance, Saddam was told. Since then, however, he has kept up and even increased his obstruction of the inspectors' work. A new U.N. report details his failure to comply.

Thus, the unanimous voice of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary William Cohen, a lifelong Republican, told Clinton an attack was essential. They were right, no matter what the domestic political situation. And the men and women in the armed services, including those from Dyess now stationed in the Gulf region, deserve solid, unified support on the home front — as former President George Bush put it, “as long as one American military airman, seaman or soldier is in harm’s way.”

But many congressional Republicans, from Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott down to House Judiciary Committee member Bob Barr of Georgia, couldn’t separate their hostility toward Clinton from the need for national unity during military action or stifle their choler for just a couple of days. They openly criticized the president for ordering the attack on Iraq to stall the impeachment vote in the House.

Outrageous conspiracy theory

To believe that, even if you think Clinton capable of such a thing, you’d also have to believe the entire Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Cohen acquiesced in making themselves pawns in Clinton’s political game — a conspiracy theory more outrageous than anything O.J. Simpson’s lawyers came up with.

Besides, the votes for impeachment are secured. It’s a done deal as soon as the House calls the roll. Clinton gains nothing by a delay.

Most Americans — as many as 80 percent in a CBS poll — support the attack on Saddam. What will they think of the anti-Clinton invective from congressional Republicans who, a month ago, blasted him for not bombing Iraq and who, at every opportunity, question his patriotism for having spoken against a government-sanctioned military action as a private citizen while they, as officials of the government, turn around and criticize this military action?

Many will conclude that in the minds of some Republicans, Clinton is damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t, and that any argument, no matter how convoluted, is free game to use against him. With a majority of Americans already opposed to impeachment, they are not likely to gain any faith that Congress is doing the right thing, especially with the world now being treated to the spectacle of a president being impeached in the middle of a shooting war.

Our men and women in uniform deserve better than this. Clinton will be impeached soon enough. His foes could bite their tongues until our soldiers are out of the line of fire.