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Show 10 H,llt?pT,nes COMMENTS Aug, 2. 1991 nns slfay for honorable reasons by Mortimer D. Zuckerman News & o Li md vtetfoiry lo) U prevailed against very little. Such a short war! So few casualties! So little to celebrate! On the contrary, the shortness of the war, far from being an indication that it was puny or unnecessary, was a reflection of the allied achievement. America mobilized half a million people and moved more materiel than at any time since World War II. The minimal cost in casualties was achieved by brilliant generalship and technology, especially the air war of cruise missiles and stealth bombers that very nearly won the war and broke the mold of warfare. Contrast Desert Storm with Desert One the botched attempt to rescue American hostages in Iran. And this was a victory in a just cause. . It liberated Kuwait. It did not depose Saddam Hussein not yet but it degraded his war machine at such a small cost that we robbed him of the image of the hero and the masquerade of a victor. His influence is shattered. We diminished his ability to threaten his neighbors. He is there, but he is no longer as menacing a player in the dangerous games of the Middle East. This is reason enough to celebrate. It did not have to be a war to end all wars, to save democracy in Kuwait, to produce cooperation from Saudi Arabia and Syria or to bring about a new world order or even a peaceful Middle East. We need not despair because of the difficulties in translating battlefield victories into durable political achievements or be haunted by mistakes made at the war's end. Our long experience with the Arab world teaches us that we should be humble in our expectations when the region's politics are determined by die- - War fought and won U.S. o World Report r merica has been on parade. The 0 cheers have been heartfelt. They Zlhonor those who died and those who were ready to sacrifice their lives. And they rightly celebrate the spirit of national satisfaction derived from America's world leadership in response to the crisis in the Persian made-in-Americ- a 20th-centur- Gulf. The nationwide response should dampen the shrill chorus of liberal critics who have tried to have it all ways. Look at what the sour brigade has been saying. First, they minimize the war itself. It was not a proper war at all, they say: "A wretched little hightech police action" is the way Robert Reno typically puts it in a Newsday column headed "A Hollow Victory." Odd. Six months ago, people like Reno were warning that Iraq was such a fearsome power, and Saddam Hussein such a crafty general, that thousands of body bags would be coming to America to break public support. Kuwait would be another Vietnam. This was not so much prudence as pacifism, an honorable but delusive ideal that merely postpones a fight to another, and maybe a worse, day. What was revealed before the war was an ideological rejection of any policy that involves force or strength of will. Since strength prevailed, it follows, in this line of reasoning that it must have y tatorial leaders who can kiss each other on the cheeks one day and seek to kill each other the next. No, the war did not solve all the problems at one stroke. But do you know of any war that did? That expectation is always unfulfilled. Yet the tinge of disappointment in this victory is minimal: Think of the disappointment that World War II ended with the enslavement of Eastern Europe. Winning the war does not mean winning the peace that follows, but it certainly helps. Think of the alternative defeat or appeasement. Had we let Hussein go unchallenged, he would have used increased oil revenues to build even more weapons of mass destruction to undermine the security of our friends in the gulf and the stability of the world. We celebrate because we won the war we, the people. As Gen. Colin Powell says in his foreword to the picture book "Triumph in the Desert," "The people those of America and those of the international coalition of liberated Kuwait are what our victory was all about. From the soldier in the desert threading his way through the minefields to the kid back home tying yellow ribbons to a tree...They are our strength today and our hope for tomorrow." We celebrate because we reaffirmed our values that international borders are inviolable, that aggression must not stand and must not pay, that a nation's people can unite after honorable debate and that countries can cooperate for their common good. Here is inspiration enough for the future. Editor's ncfa: Used with permission. Copyright June 24, 1991, U.S. News & World Report Zuckerman is editor-in-chie- f. mm r V V "i TTTki Utenn HM Wmm uu mm 0DCHD(MDCHD Q330 m mmm- &rimw o |