Without a doubt, the chemical weapons attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was an act of cowardice. That’s true even if he believed no civilians would be killed. But Sen. Dan Sullivan’s chest thumping reaction to the cruise missile response ordered by President Donald Trump is also wrong. Because in matters of war and peace, America’s credibility problem dates all the way back to the Yalta Conference of February 1945.
The first words of Sullivan’s press release following the missile strike were to “commend the brave young men and women in the U.S. military for carrying out President Trump’s orders.”
There’s nothing courageous about launching 59 Tomahawk missiles from hundreds of miles away. Pushing the computerized trigger in the safe confines of a naval destroyer isn’t at all like being subjected to enemy fire from anti-aircraft defense systems while flying a bombing mission. Or facing an enemy with boots on the ground.
“Going forward,” the senator continued, “we must continue the difficult task of reestablishing U.S. credibility in the region by working closely with our allies to advance our collective security interests.” This was a classic Sullivan snipe at President Barack Obama because Trump had followed through with his red line warning that his predecessor backed away from.
To suggest Obama’s decision resulted in a loss of credibility is to ignore the fact that his diplomacy led to the removal or destruction of 90 percent of Assad’s chemical weapons. That gave Trump the luxury of ordering his strike without concern for the regime ordering a counterstrike using those.
More significantly, Sullivan is rewriting chapters of American history by forgetting the inhumane actions we’ve taken in the so-called interest of national security.
Let’s start by recognizing the damage done to America’s reputation by the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
The primary argument for launching a war not supported by many of our traditional allies was that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. That turned out to be false.
The Bush administration predicted the war would last less than six months and that American troops would be “greeted as liberators.” President Bush himself declared an end to combat operations two months after the invasion. But at least 175,000 civilians were killed in a war that was still being fought when he left office five years later.
How many allies trusted America’s judgment after that?
Going further back, Iraq used chemical weapons in its war against Iran. Six attacks targeted civilian populations. America never objected, though, because Iran was our enemy too.
Look what we did in Vietnam. In a war that had nothing to do with protecting America, our bombing raids killed at least half a million innocent civilians.
America’s disregard for civilians is rooted in the agreements reached during the Yalta Conference. That’s where the U.S., U.K. and USSR began plotting Europe’s postwar reconfiguration. Among the decisions made was to begin bombing raids on German cities where weapons were being produced. A few days after the conference, the firebombing of Dresden killed an estimated 135,000 people, mostly civilians. Hamburg and Toyoko suffered similar fates.
Then we dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Immediately afterward, President Harry Truman told Japan to “expect a rain of ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth” unless they surrendered. When they refused, Truman followed through with his threat by ordering the destruction of Nagasaki.
To many people around the world, this history casts a dark shadow on our nation’s concern for the lives of innocent civilians. After learning we tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and CIA black sites, they further question our commitment to international law. This is why restoring America’s credibility will take a lot more than inflicting the punishment we’ve promised on others for the crimes they committed.
I agree with Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s more humble and humane response to our missile strike. Our “nation cannot stand idle while innocent civilians are killed with these terrible chemical weapons,” she said in a written statement. “Syria continues to be in turmoil from years of civil war and solutions to solving the problem are hard to come by, but it’s time to end this bloodshed and terrorism.”
Murkowski isn’t offering answers. But at least she recognizes the Syrian situation is a humanitarian crisis rather than a threat to our national security. And by pleading for an end to the war, she’s identifying what the real goal of our foreign policy should be. Because it’s only when America can advocate for and deliver peaceful solutions to such conflicts that we will be a credible leader of the free world.
• Rich Moniak is a Juneau resident and retired civil engineer with more than 25 years of experience working in the public sector.
