‘Wag the Dog’
or right thing?
Hawaii pundits respond to
By Craig Gima
Clinton's choice of action on the
eve of his impeachment vote
Star-BulletinSen. Daniel Inouye said that after speaking personally with Defense Secretary William Cohen and other Pentagon officials yesterday, he was convinced the airstrikes against Iraq were necessary.
"I don't think the president had any other choice if he wanted to make a responsible decision and keep in mind the national security of the United States," he said.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka and Rep. Neil Abercrombie also said they support President Clinton's decision to launch a cruise missile attack on Iraq.
But former Republican state Rep. Gene Ward, who ran against Abercrombie for Congress, questioned the timing of the attack on the eve of impeachment vote.
Ward said Republicans in Washington have "'Wag the Dog' on their mind." "Wag the Dog" is the movie about a President and his advisers who fake an attack on a foreign country to distract the public's attention from a sex scandal.
"The same people who are criticizing him (the president) today, a month ago were criticizing him for calling off the attack," said Abercrombie, who had just come out of a briefing with national security officials yesterday.
Abercrombie said the timing of the attack came about because Richard Butler, chairman of the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq, filed a report saying arms inspectors were not being allowed to conduct inspections despite a promise last month by Iraq to allow them to do their work.
He said the administration also wanted to conduct the attack before the Muslim holy season of Ramadan, which begins this weekend.
"Iraq is solely and squarely responsible for its flagrant noncompliance with weapons inspections," said Akaka in a written statement.
Richard Baker, an international relations specialist with the East West Center, said criticism of the President would have been higher if the administration had allowed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to continue to defy the United Nations.
"Iraq clearly will make every effort to portray this as an American act against Islam," he said. However, Baker said he would be surprised if countries like Egypt or Saudi Arabia come out in support of Saddam.
Majid Tehranian, director of the Toda Institute for Global Peace and Policy Research at the University of Hawaii, said he believes the attacks are making "a hero out of a villain."
"Saddam Hussein is in the eyes of Arab nationalists, the only leader who is standing up to the United States," Tehranian said.
Tehranian believes the United States should change its policy in the region from being a policeman to becoming a broker for peace.
Brian Hallett, an assistant professor at the Matsunaga Institute for Peace, agrees.
"I can't see how the attack will change Saddam Hussein's attitudes toward the United Nations inspections one way or the other," he said.
Andy Parks, environmental and peace activist on Kauai, said: "I don't trust these U.N. guys any more than I trust Saddam Hussein.
"I think there's a lot more than meets the eye. It's just another war to support the oil companies and corporate America so that we can have dollar-a-gallon gas. We're killing civilians in Bagdad so that we can have dollar-a-gallon gas," he said.
Star-Bulletin reporter Trish Moore contributed to this report.
Former arms inspector
By Craig Gima
Scott Ritter has
ties to Hawaii
Star-BulletinA controversial figure in the events leading up to the attack on Iraq was supposed to be in Hawaii with his family for Christmas, but is now writing a book about his experience as an arms inspector in Iraq.
Former United Nations inspector Scott Ritter spent part of his childhood in Honolulu and attended Aliamanu Elementary and Intermediate School and a semester at Radford High School while his father was stationed at Hickam Air Force Base from 1970 to 1975.
His parents, Bill and Pat Ritter, are now retired and live in Volcano on the Big Island.
In January, Iraq accused Ritter of being a spy for the United States and refused to allow him to do his work. That action set up yet another diplomatic confrontation with Iraq over inspections.
Ritter resigned from the United Nations Special Commission that carries out inspections in Iraq in August. He had worked for the commission for seven years and harshly criticized the Security Council, the United States and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the decision not to take stronger action after Iraq stopped cooperating with weapons inspectors this past summer.
Bill Ritter said he talked to his son last week.
"I don't think he thinks too highly of the foreign policy resolve of the current administration," Ritter said.
He said his son does not advocate bombing Iraq without a plan to bring Iraq into compliance.
"It has to be something meaningful that would alter events not just to make holes in empty buildings," Ritter said.
He said, however, his son believes actions is preferrable to diplomacy.
"Hussein showed he did not respond to the diplomatic solution," Ritter said.
Ritter was driving home to Volcano when he and his wife learned about the bombing on the car radio.
"Either Saddam Hussein is being incredibly smart or incredibly dumb, I don't know which," he said.
Ritter said his son hopes to come to Hawaii in March after he has written his book.
Hawaii ships in gulf
By Susan Kreifels
not connected
to strikes
Star-BulletinThree Hawaii-based Navy ships are in the Persian Gulf and two attack submarines are headed there, but on normal deployments, according to a spokesman for the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Command.
None of the deployments are connected to the U.S. air strikes on Iraq yesterday, said CINCPAC spokesman Lt. Col. Kevin Krejcarek.
Krejcarek said the Pearl Harbor-based destroyers USS Fletcher, USS Paul Hamilton and USS Hopper are currently cruising the Persian Gulf. They departed for the gulf Aug. 31 and have been there since arriving.
Two attack submarines, the USS Pasadena and USS Columbus, are headed to the gulf on regular deployments, Krejcarek said. They joined the USS Carl Vinson battle group, which departed the West Coast and passed through Hawaii about a month ago on its way to replace the battle group now in the gulf.
Each submarine carries a crew of 150, and the destroyers each hold a crew of about 340.
The Paul Hamilton and Hopper are guided-missile destroyers.
Krejcarek said the National Command Authority -- which includes President Clinton and Secretary of Defense William Cohen -- will determine U.S. military goals in Iraq and what personnel, equipment and support will be needed. CINCPAC then will be notified if it needs to send support.
"Right now it appears to be only cruise missiles," he said. "We don't need a large land force."
Iraq falls outside CINCPAC's area of command, which extends west through India. The U.S. Central Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, takes over at Pakistan.
Military bases in Hawaii were already on heightened security due to the attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa. Although the military cannot discuss what security measures are taken, the most obvious action is ID checks at the base gates.
Krejcarek served during the entire 1991 Persian Gulf War, which also targeted Iraq for its invasion of Kuwait.
As an Air Force public affairs officer based at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, he was sent to work with the news media out of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October 1990. He didn't leave the area until May 1991.
President Clinton called for yesterday's attacks after U.N. weapons inspectors were ordered to pull out of Iraq, which inspectors said had once again reneged on its promise to cooperate with the inspections.
"I'm sorry it had to lead to this," Krejcarek said. "Everybody, as a result of the end of the war, thought Iraq would abide by the surrender agreements.
"The Iraqi people unfortunately are the ones to suffer. That never was our intent."
Petty Officer 1st Class Scott Thornbloom, with the CINCPAC Fleet public affairs office, served aboard the battleship USS Missouri during the Persian Gulf War.
Thornbloom said sailors now see possible conflict with Iraq as something they must always be prepared for during regular deployments to the Persian Gulf.
"Going to the gulf is nothing new," Thornbloom said about six-month deployments there. "In between we had a little war. That's the mind-set of anybody who goes on deployment."
During the last U.S. military buildup connected to Iraq's refusal to help weapons inspectors, the Hawaii Air National Guard sent three KC-135 air refueling tankers to Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska. They helped refuel U.S. bombers from the mainland heading to the Persian Gulf.
Spokesman Capt. Charles Anthony said members of the 203rd Air Refueling Squadron deployed to Alaska Nov. 12-23.
No National Guard troops from Hawaii are currently deployed on Iraq-connected missions, he said.
