This time, get Saddam: Cut this cancer out now, before the Butcher of Baghdad becomes even deadlier
By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
USA Today, September 4, 1996
The proverbial handwriting is now clearly on the wall. The
decision to allow Saddam Hussein to survive the Persian Gulf war
was one of recent history’s more serious miscalculations.
He did not “learn his lesson” from Operation Desert
Storm, as some had naively hoped. He has, instead, simply bided
his time, periodically probing U.S. resolve and awaiting a moment
when he might exact revenge upon the United States, its allies
and/or others closer at hand.
Let’s face it: A thug like Saddam is a cancer on the
international body politic. He has survived for decades through
sheer ruthlessness and by acts of aggression in the face of
others’ weakness.
And he is sure to have interpreted Washington’s latest bout
of “signal-sending” as evidence of President Clinton’s
perennial preoccupation with domestic issues, his
administration’s discomfort with the effective use of U.S.
military power, and the United States’ declining influence in the
region.
Such an interpretation is certain to provoke greater
malevolence on Saddam’s part in the future — even if he backs
down temporarily in the near term.
And the critical response from most former partners in the
U.S.-led gulf war coalition is an ominous indication that this
interpretation is widely shared.
In other words, the cancer is sure to continue to metastasize
— unless cut out.
And cutting it out is certain to be more easily accomplished now,
when Saddam is still relatively weak and preoccupied with killing
his own people, rather than later, when Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction and other lethal capabilities are greater and their
targets are further afield.
This is not to suggest that helping end Saddam’s reign of
terror will be as straightforward a matter as it probably would
have been after Desert Storm. If anything, successive failed coup
attempts against the Butcher of Baghdad demonstrate that his
police-state apparatus is sufficient to preserve Saddam in power,
absent a concerted effort by a nation with the resources and
reach of the United States.
What Saddam’s latest gambit and its geopolitical aftermath
demonstrates, though, is that as a practical matter the United
States simply no longer has a choice but to mount such a
concerted effort — ideally in league with like-minded countries,
but alone if necessary.
U.S. intelligence, covert and overt capabilities, financial
levers and information-warfare technology should be brought to
bear immediately for the purpose of disrupting Saddam’s police
state and liberating Iraq. There’s not a moment to lose.
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. was assistant secretary of Defense
and held other senior positions in the Defense Department of
President Ronald Reagan. He is now director of the private Center
for Security Policy in Washington.
Mr. Gaffney is the host of Secure Freedom Radio, a nationally-syndicated radio program heard weeknights throughout the country. He is an associate author of highly acclaimed Shariah: The Threat to America and the publisher of over a dozen other books and monographs from the Center for Security Policy Press.
In April 1987, Mr. Gaffney was nominated by President Reagan to become the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Policy, the senior position in the Defense Department with responsibility for policies involving U.S.-USSR relations, nuclear forces, arms control, missile defense policy and U.S.-European defense ties. He acted in that capacity for seven months during which time, he was the Chairman of the prestigious High Level Group, NATO’s senior politico-military committee. He also represented the Secretary of Defense in key U.S.-Soviet negotiations and ministerial meetings.
From August 1983 until November 1987, Mr. Gaffney was the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy under Assistant Secretary Richard Perle.
From February 1981 to August 1983, Mr. Gaffney was a Professional Staff Member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by the late Senator John Tower (R-Texas). And, in the latter 1970’s, Mr. Gaffney served as an aide to the late Senator Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson (D-Washington) in the areas of defense and foreign policy.
Mr. Gaffney holds a Master of Arts degree in International Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mr. Gaffney’s leadership has been recognized by numerous organizations including: the Department of Defense Distinguished Public Service Award (1987), the U.S. Business and Industry Council’s Defender of the National Interest Award (1994), the Navy League of the United States’ Alfred Thayer Mahan Literary Achievement Award (1999), and the Zionist Organization of America’s “Louis Brandeis Award” (2003), the Western Conservative Summit’s Stephen H. Long Award (2015), the Council for National Policy’s George Washington Military Leadership Award (2016) and the IMPACT Award from Ginni Thomas and United in Purpose (2017).
Mr. Gaffney was born in 1953 and resides in the Washington, D.C. area.
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