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 | STRATEGIC STRIKE
SEPTEMBER 4, 1996TRANSCRIPT |
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U.S. armed forces continued to launch cruise missiles at military targets in Southern Iraq today in response to Iraqi attacks on Kurds in Northern Iraq. After this background report, a panel of journalists and Middle East experts debates the effectiveness of attacks and whether Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has paid too little for his gains in Kurdish areas.ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH:For the second night in a row, the glare of U.S. cruise missiles lit the skies over the Persian Gulf and Southern Iraq. The computer-guided, ground-hugging, $1 million missiles were directed
A RealAudio version of of this NewsHour segment is available.
Join our forum on the plight of the Kurds in the Middle East.
September 3
Defense Sec. William Perry explains why the U.S. launched cruise missile attacks on Iraq
September 2
Two experts discuss the ramifications of Iraqs invasion of the Kurdish "Safe Haven."
May 20
The NewsHour looks at the U.N. decision to lift sanctions against Iraqi oil sales.
February 7
The state of Iraq five years after the imposition of sanctions.
February 7
Three experts discuss why Saddam Hussein has agreed negotiate the lifting of sanctions on his country.
Browse The NewsHour's coverage of the Middle Eastmostly at targets not totally demolished in Tuesday’s attacks Pentagon officials said. The object was to get rid of Iraqi air defense sites and lower the risks for allied pilots flying in the just-expanded Southern no-fly zone in Iraq. The allies created the zones, barred to Iraq aircraft in the south and north of Iraq, after the 1991 Gulf War. Around mid-day today, Washington Time, the Iraqis responded. Defense Secretary William Perry in a press conference, alongside his British counterpart Michael Portillo, explained.
WILLIAM PERRY, Secretary of Defense: We encountered two challenges on this first day of patrolling again. One
of them--two MiG’s--approached our planes from the north, but both of them turned back before they got to 33 degrees north. Secondly, a radar from a SA-8, air defense system illuminated one of our planes, and we fired a HARM missile at that radar. The radar stopped illuminating after we fired the HARM. I have no further information about the results of that operation, except that the radar stopped illuminating.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Perry was asked if the U.S. objective was to get rid of Iraq leader Saddam Hussein.
SEC. WILLIAM PERRY: Our objective remains the same as it has been from the beginning--to deter Saddam Hussein from taking actions which commit atrocities to his own people which attack his neighbors and which upset the security and stability of the region. And all of our various responses to him through the years have been intended either to deter him from taking those actions, or to punish him or stop him from taking those actions.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Both Perry and Portillo were asked why the operation had only limited allied support other than from Britain.
MICHAEL PORTILLO, M
inister of Defense, Britain: Every country has to make its public statements in the way that it regards as best, but I think there is the most widespread joint understanding of the sort of man that we’re dealing with in Saddam Hussein. I think it is well understood that he has this long record of violation of human rights, that he is a destabilizing force, he has the potential to invade other countries, and I don’t believe any of our partners or any of our friends through the Middle East would dissent from that analysis of the sort of person that we’re dealing with.
ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Perry said that the French were flying alongside American and British pilots in a southern no-fly zone, but French officials said their planes would refuse to go above the 32nd Parallel into the expanded no-fly zone. Russia’s foreign minister,
Yevgeny Primakov, issued his second denunciation of what he called unilateral American action. In much of the Arab world, official criticism continued, and in Iraq, there were rallies and demonstrations around the country, including one cheering Saddam Hussein. This afternoon, President Clinton said that twin strikes by U.S. Cruise missile were successful because the targets were either destroyed or sufficiently damaged. He also said the situation in Northern Iraq, where the crisis with the Kurds began, seems to have changed.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: There has been a withdrawal of the forces, a dispersal of the forces, but it’s too soon to say that this is permanent or that further action will not be taken. What we have done is to show that we are prepared to change the strategic realities that Saddam Hussein faces if he violates the United Nations prohibitions on either threatening his neighbors or repressing his own people. And I believe that we did the right thing. I think we had the right response, and I think it will have a good results. If it doesn’t we’ll take the facts as they come.
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