BUSH'S MISSION ON ARMS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580011-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 24, 2012
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: October 28, 1988
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580011-9
STAT
STAT
Stephen S. Rosenfeld
On Arms
Bush's
Mission
A glint of a special arms control
mission has appeared in George Bush's
eye. It is chemical weaponry. The vice
president says if he's elected president
he'd like to be remembered for producing
"a complete and total" international ban
on the branch of arms that Winston
Churchill called "that hellish poison."
Good. Chemical*:y have started
as a target of political opportunity for
Bush, who got sent to Geneva to present
an American proposal a few years back. It
may be part of his way of slowing down
on nuclear arms control. But chemical
war remains a fine target-a loathsome
activity worthy of presidential commit-
ment. It's not everything, but it's not one
of those multi-layered things reasonable
people agree to disagree about either.
Bush supports a negotiated ban with
good inspection, cooperation among in-
dustrial suppliers to prevent production,
controls on missiles that can carry cnemni-
cals, research on defense against such
missiles and censure of those who do this
dirty thing. It's a conventional but intelli-
gent program, and it should help in all but
the hardest cases.
The trouble is, of course, that only th~
hardest cases really matter.
Take Iraq. Lacking the West's cultural
memory of gas in World War I, Iraq
insists it has regarded gas simply as one
more weapon, and not necessarily the
worst. Its use of gas, however, combined
with missile barrages against Iranian cit-
ies, sets an ominous example.
Iraq used chemicals repeatedly against
Iranian forces, shook off repeated U.N.
documentations and condemnations, and
gained a military edge. Iraq then felt
emboldened to punish its own rebellious
Kurdish citizens-fighting, moreover, not
for its life, when all restraints tend to be
thrown off, but merely for marginal ad-
vantage. Other countries, potential com-
batants Syria and Israel among them, are
now evidently picking up the pace of their
chemical (and missile) preparations.
The United States criticized Iraq, but
only criticized, and finally in a muffled
voice. The scattered Kurds were not in a
position to supply the hard evidence that
Iran, a government; provided earlier
when it was the victim. Without that
information, the State Department had to
climb down from its initial high outrage
about the attacks on the Kurds. The usual
clutter of other considerations asserted
itself. In Congress,,the call for sanctions
was popular but shallow, and disappeared
in a parliamentary scuffle.
Iraq has a part to play in other develop-
ments of American interest-Gulf securi-
ty, regional politics, energy, trade, etc.
This ensures a certain policy balance but
works against high-voltage shocks, even
worthy ones. It lets Washington keep its
connection to Baghdad but lets Iraq get
away with vague assurances that it won't
gas Kurds anymore.
Enter Libya, an unambiguously authen-
tic outlaw state whose cooperation in
other matters Washington has long since
written off. CIA Director William Web-
has just flashed a bright spotlight on
's construction of aig chemical
X has duction But whether
has more than advertise Ameri-
can amdety and impotence is uncertain.
Now of the items in the Reagan policy
or the Bush program offers much prom-
ise of keeping a determined Libyan gov-
ernment from moving to production, de-
ployment and use. It is enough to make
one wonder whether President Reagan
should have saved his air raid on Libya for
the new chemical plant, or whether the
Israelis will follow up their attack on the
Iraqi nuclear reactor-a deed widely con-
demned publicly and, in the end, widely
applauded privately. Bush is a bit re-
served on the subject; interestingly, Mi-
chael Dukakis talks in general terns of
facing up to a requirement to preempt
terrorist attacks.
The Washington Post
The New York Times
The Washington Times
The Wall Street Journal
The Christian Science Monitor
New York Daily News
USA Today
The Chicago Tribune
Date e T
An this is not to say there is no point in
a are Bush-type chemical war-
fare programanli. Right now we are shocked
and dismayed whenever the matter of
someone's killer gas comes up, and we
improvise, with the results painfully evi-
Governments should be held to a
admission to international company. Polit-
ically, the worst thing would be if actual
and would-be users of "that hellish poi-
son" were no longer to be regarded as
outlaws.
t in Iraq and Libya. But expectations
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/25: CIA-RDP99-01448R000401580011-9
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