WHITE HOUSE WATCH Section - Page A1
September 13, 1996 CLINTON ORDERS 5000 GROUND TROOPS TO KUWAIT!
by Staff Journalists, The Daily Republican Newspaper
WASHINGTON DESK - President Bill Clinton ordered 5000 ground troops to Kuwait on Friday for military exercises of an indefinite time period, according to a statement released by the Clinton White House Friday afternoon. These are in addition to the B-52 bombers and Stealth fighters he moved there Thursday. What is behind this dramatic set of events cannot be immediately determined because president Clinton has not made any coherent statement justifying such drastic actions.
In the last three days the Pentagon has warned Iraq that it was about to unleash massive military retaliation against Iraq's leaders for moving its military forces around inside Iraq's national borders without the approval of the Clinton White House.
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the president made cryptic remarks about Iraq in a political speech delivered at Morris Dailey Elementary School in Fresno Calif., and attended by around 5,000 standing teachers, students, and seated school administrators. Clinton said he had ordered more military attacks on Iraq to teach them a lesson. A thousand or more teachers cheered, as if on cue, and the school children present yelled approval. The Fresno County Schools Chief, Peter Mehas, wearing a blocked white Stetson, was seated in the reserved-seat area. Mehas smiled, nodded affirmatively, and applauded the president's mention of ordering aggressive military action against Iraq and in taking credit for present economic indicators.
President Clinton then attempted to claim credit for what he called moving closer to "...[R]ealizing our dreams in the 21st century... this strategy is showing some results. We have the lowest unemployment rate in 7.5 years..." Teachers and students in the audience cheered wildly and waved their arms in the air, some whistled. Administrators watched in apparent surprise.
Daily Republican Newspaper reports on the scene for more than 5 hours found no teachers, students or administrators who could make a coherent explanation for the phrase in the president' speech "to teach them a lesson" or for that matter why guided missiles would be fired at the Iraqi people by president Clinton.
One Third-Grade teacher attending the political rally from a different District school told reporters "I was cheering because president Clinton wanted us to yell to show support for him. He says he is the education president. I don't really understand that missile thing." This teacher was asked if she knew what president Clinton meant by the terms and "unemployment rate" or what, if any, the economic significance is for a "low unemployment rate?" The teacher said she didn't know why president Clinton had used those terms.
Earlier on Thursday, Clinton appointee William Perry, Secretary of Defense, was even more inarticulate when he told reporters in Washington that Saddam Hussein would "... very soon learn that we are not playing games". However, Secretary Perry failed to state any coherent foreign policy purpose for president Clinton's orders for military action against Iraq in the past week. Thursday, Clinton stepped-up the pace and intensity of U.S. military presence in the Gulf.
The Clinton White House has ordered the Pentagon to send two B-52 bombers to the British air base in the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, the exact same aircraft which launched missiles into southern Iraq last week.
Britain was singled out for praise by Nicholas Burns, State Department spokesman, who said concrete assistance such as the use of a base was worth much more than "rhetorical support" from the United Nations.
Meanwhile, President Bill Clinton, was still on the campaign trail trying to get a boost from what he hopes will be a successful bombing and missile raid on Iraq Thursday and Friday.
It became clear that president Clinton’s renewed military strike on Iraq is closely correlated with his political campaign. It is also clear that as public opinion is turning against Clinton’s military adventure in Iraq, Clinton is actually distracting voters from election issues by intensifying the crisis by ordering sustained aerial bombing against strategic targets.
The London Telegraph reported on Thursday that the Pentagon claimed to have found 'provocative' activities by Iraq in the South of the country. According to the London Telegraph, the 'provocation' was actually only an Iraqi MiG-25 and an Iraqi military helicopter briefly flying over a small part of Iraq near the Clinton designated "no- fly" zone. When the Clinton White House was informed, the president ordered U.S. war planes to intercept them. When U.S. planes to make the interception, Washington then called for a major strike.
A Defense department official said that eight Stealth bombers were preparing to head to the conflict zone yesterday as he gave a speech in Colorado. His spokesman, Michael Mc curry, said that the United States reserved the right to take any action against Saddam's forces.
However, the Pentagon's military options for taking action in the north of the country appear to have been strategically limited by the disintegration of the old Gulf war coalition. As evidence of this disintegration, the Daily Republican has been reporting Sunday that Turkey and Saudi Arabia have refused to allow America to mount bombing raids from their territory, leaving the Pentagon dependent on aircraft carrier-based jets in the Gulf.
A defense department official said that eight Stealth bombers were preparing to head to the conflict zone. "They already have the deployment orders," Secretary Perry told reporters.
Despite the aggressive rhetoric, there was a growing realization in Washington last night that the confrontation with Baghdad was unlikely to be the short, sharp encounter hoped for by Clinton.
On Wednesday, the Clinton White House prepared to order another attack on Iraqi targets for Thursday, while president Clinton would be in California on a campaign tour.
The Clinton White House had hyped the first attack on Iraq as a surgical strike. Clinton then made a series of campaign stops along the campaign trail to test public opinion. Not satisfied with what he was hearing on the street, Clinton ordered a series of additional strikes. Yesterday, Clinton ordered a full B-52, Stealth and fighter bombing run on Iraq.
However, Saddam Hussein has demonstrated his ability to get out-of-the-way and get under the skin of Bill Clinton. Clinton's anger has now drawn the U.S. military deeper into Iraq and the nation deep into harm's way.
There is now every prospect that Saddam could continue to defy the Clinton White House now and over the next four years if Clinton is re-elected in November.
Robert Dole, the Republican presidential nominee, has criticized Clinton for exaggerating the damage inflicted by the missile attacks. But he has not yet condemned him for his failure to deter Saddam from his military adventuring in the Krishna regions of the north.
Initially, Michael Mc curry, the presidential spokesman, said one objective of the first burst of cruise missiles was to "humiliate" Saddam in front of his army. By any measure, that objective does not seem to have been met, and Saddam appears newly emboldened in ordering his troops to engage British and American jets enforcing the no-fly zones.
However, when the media questions administration officials about the Clinton White House' failure to act in the north to defend those Words, the White House is silent. Kurdish leaders, working covertly with the CIA, were under severe attack in the North when Clinton sent the missile strike on the South.
Since that action by Clinton, the Kurdish-CIA operation was over-run by Saddam Hussein and its leaders executed by Hussein while Clinton was announcing the success of his Mid-East policy as demonstrated by the success of his guided missile attack on Southern Iraq.
A reprise of the Gulf War will not be readily accepted by the American people. The use of U.S. troops in a ground war in the Mid-East or Iraq may mean a long-term commitment of men and materiel for a generation or more. For this kind of involvement, the Clinton White House owes the Congress a detailed accounting of his intentions and his justifications.
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