Isn't Christopher Hitchens less noxious and obnoxious -- because his position is obviously brutal -- than Michael Walzer?
***** NYT March 7, 2003 What a Little War in Iraq Could Do By MICHAEL WALZER PRINCETON, N.J.
...The way to avoid a big war is to intensify the little war that the United States is already fighting. It is using force against Iraq every day - to protect the no-flight zones and to stop and search ships heading for Iraqi ports. Only the American threat to use force makes the inspections possible - and possibly effective....
So here is an exit strategy for the Bush administration. They haven't asked for it, but they need it. First, extend the northern and southern no-flight zones to include the whole country. America has already drastically restricted Iraqi sovereignty, so this would not be anything new. There are military reasons for the extension - the range of missiles, the speed of planes, the reach of radar all make it difficult for the United States and Britain to defend the northern and the southern regions of Iraq without control of central airspace. But the main reason would be punitive: Iraq has never accepted the containment regime put in place after the gulf war, and its refusal to do that should lead to tighter and tighter containment.
Second, impose the "smart sanctions" that the Bush administration talked about before 9/11 and insist that Iraq's trading partners commit themselves to enforcing them. Washington should announce sanctions of its own against countries that don't cooperate, and it should also punish any companies that try to sell military equipment to Iraq. Third, the United States should expand the United Nations' monitoring system in all the ways that have recently been proposed: adding inspectors, bringing in United Nations soldiers (to guard military installations after they have been inspected), sending surveillance planes without providing 48 hours' notice, and so on.
Finally, the United States should challenge the French to make good on their claim that force is indeed a last resort by mobilizing troops of their own and sending them to the gulf....Or better, they have to join the United States in every aspect of the little war.
If an American proposal along these lines received strong international support, if there was a real commitment to sustain the little war for as long as necessary, there would be no good reason for the big war....
Michael Walzer, professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study and co-editor of Dissent, is author of "Just and Unjust Wars."
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/07/opinion/07WALZ.html> ***** -- Yoshie
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