Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Israeli planes demolished Iraqi nuclear plants. The world roared with indignation because Iraq was not actually using the weapons against Israel...
...years later, during the Gulf War, this preventive measure saved the lives of many. Had Israel waited until Iraq actually attacked, it might have been too late. Israel's action is a perfect example of the legitimate and necessary use of force in response to the threat of action. It is an example where force comes to protect the existence of a free society...
Interventions in the gray areas the Pentagon calls "operations other than war" are hardest to explain. General John Shalikashvili, Powell's successor as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, is the man who directed the operation that provided refuge to the Kurds in Iraq, and he does not shrink from similar missions to bring succor to strife-torn countries. "We have a capacity like almost no one else," he says. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb finds Shalikashvili much more willing to get involved in brush fires than his predecessor. "Powell wanted low-risk operations," Korb says. "But Shali...
...forces are to be used to protect vital interests and key allies seems less than adequate to guide the country in a violent world of fluctuating priorities. Will America's $260 billion-a-year military machine be sent into action to fight only aggressors like North Korea, Iran or Iraq, as the Pentagon's conventional strategy suggests? Those are the least likely contingencies: cross-border invasions and highly visible aggression are increasingly rare. Civil wars, ethnic violence and disintegrating states now produce most of the bloodshed and agony that shock viewers on the evening news programs. Will America duck...
...rule: the U.S. will act when it sees that its vital interests are at stake--as in the gulf--but feels no compulsion to send in the Marines without a very good reason. The public demanded a pullout from Somalia but said nothing about abandoning overflights in Iraq when two U.S. helicopters were mistakenly shot down in April 1994 and 15 Americans were killed. The difference between the two cases is obvious. The public understands that oil is a strategic interest, and Saddam Hussein--a tyrant hoping to build nuclear weapons--represents a threat to U.S. security. On that basis...