Page 6 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 29, 1983
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Editorial PLO thugs
Yasser Arafat confirmed last week what Israeli intelligence chief Ehud Barak announced recently — that there are now more than 1,000 armed Palestinians in Beirut.
Arafat, speaking to reporters with his habitual bragadoccio, indicated .that his "fighters" were now aligned with Druze, Syrian and Moslem forces against the legally constituted Lebanese government. .
Arafat clearly remembers nothing and learns nothing from past experiences, preferring the old anti-American and anti-Israel rhetoric about ' 'fighting on to the „end." -
It was slightly more than a year ago that Arafat and his PLO band were given safe conduct out of Beirut. In an interview with Italian journalist Oriana Falacci that was widely circulated last year, General Ariel Sharon said that he has bestowed "the gift of life" on the PLO.
Judging from current PLO infiltration into Lebanon, neither Arafat nor his followers appear to be in the least appreciative of the gesture which Israel made in its unprecedented acquiescence to the PLO withdrawal.
The PLO, having been forced into quiescence during the past year, is reasserting itself through the same brand of thuggery which has characterized its career since its inception.
Given their bloodthirsty profile, it is understandable why Sen. John Glenn, (a Democratic aspirant for the U.S. presidency), said recently in a speech in New York City that "the PLO has proven itself to be little njore than a gang of thugs and until they abandon the use of terror and renounce forever their oath to destroy Israel, the U.S. should neither recognize nor negotiate with them."
An era ends
Nil{oIaus Pevsner was one of the great architectural critics and art historians.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, Pevsner died recently in London. He was 81. At his death, Pevsner could lay claim to the fact that he had few peers in his illustrious career.
He was the author of such classics as Pioneers of the Modem Movement, An Outline of European Architecture, The Englishness of English Art and A History of Building Types.
He was also the originator of, and chief contributor to, the 46-volume Penguin survey of The Buildings of England.
Editor of the Architectural Review, Pevsner was a lecturer in the history of art at Birbeck College of the University of London.
Niltolaus Bemhard Leon Pevsner was bom hi 1902. When he was all of 22, he was granted a PhD hi art history. From 1924 to 1928, when Weimar culture flourished, Pevsner was assistant keeper of the Dresden Art Gallery. Until 1933, the year Hitler became chancellor, he lectured on art and architecture at the University of Gotthigen.
Endowed with deep curiosity and iixcep-tibnal powers of organization, Pevsner published his first book, The Baroque Architecture of Leipzig in 1928, following it up in 1930 with Italian Painting From the End of the Renaissance to the End of Rococo.
With Nazism and anti-semitism on the ascendancy, Pevsner left Germany, depriving that country of a formidable mind. It didn't take him long to regain his footing. In Britain, Pevsner put his encyclopedic knowledge to good use by lecturing, writing and editing.
A succession of British universities gave him honorary degrees, and the West German government, in a gesture of atonement for Hitler's crimes, awarded him the Grand Cross of Merit.
Iran-Iraq battle enters fourth year
Casuakies^m in forgotten war
By
SHELDON KIRSHNER
Three years ago this month, the war nearly everyone has forgotten began.
The Gulf War pitting Iraq against Iran has developed into a costly slugging match which neither side seems capable of winning. It could go on for years.
Casualties have been frightful: 100,000 dead and more than 200,000 wounded. What started as a blustering Iraqi blitzkrieg has deteriorated intp a war of attrition which has caused grave damage to the economies of the combatants and resulted in the creation of ah estimated two million refugees.
At first, the war triggered banner headlines in newspapers around the world. But now, as the war enters its fourth year, it is definitely a back-page item.
The scant coverage it receives is not just a function of editors' lack of interest. With few exceptions, Iran and Iraq have prevented reporters from going to the front and getting first-hand, reasonably accurate information.
Neither Iraq nor Iran have much to be proud of: Iraq, having initiated hostilities, has failed to use the momentum it gained in the opening stages of the war. Iran, having lost thousands of square kilometres of land, has regained almost all of it without being able to inflict strategic blows against Iraq.
The military incompetence displayed by Iran and Iraq has been appalling. Neither country has deployed its armor, properly. Tanks have not been used in conjunction with infantry and, at best, have been used as fixed artillery.
Iran has squandered thousands of its troops in futile charges reminiscent of World War I trench warfare. Iraq, with its smaller population, has been cautious in committing men to battles. Nevertheless, Iraqi soldiers have fallen in droves.
Iraq, like Iran, lacks an integrated air battle plan.
Despite overwhelming superiority, Iraq has not made effective use of its air force, which consists of about 390 planes, including 140 advanced ground-attack jets.
The Iraqis' target selection has been poor and unco-ordinated, with pilots reportedly dropping bombs and firing missiles from relatively high altitudes and great distances from the targets. Worse still, local commanders are said to.plan attacks without even bothering to consult neighboring commanders.
Maintenance, too, is inadequate.
Iran, half of whose air force was grounded by a lack of spare parts when the war broke out, has an undistinguished record as well. And, with only 30 to 40 operational aircraft,
Citizens ofDezful, Iran, carry caskets ofpeople killed in Iraqi missile attacks. [A.P. photo]
Iran has absolutely no chance to pulverize Iraqi formations. Because Iraq and Iran have exhibited no
flair, much less brilliance, in the conduct of the war, it has largely been a hit-and-run affair.
In the autumn of 1980, Iraq captured a sizeable chunk of Iranian territory. By 1982, Iran had succeeded in driving Iraq out of most of it.
By then, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein appeared ready to withdraw his troops and, in effect, sue for peace. But Iran, under the militant leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini, was not in any mood to lay down its arms.
The Iraqi strongman, who seems to have staked his reputation — and perhaps his life — on winning, had grossly underestimated the resolve and resiliency of his non-Arab foe.
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For the past two years, the war has taken on a familiar pattern: Iran launches a badly organized offensive, recaptures some land and stops in its tracks, exhausted.
Despite the costs, Iran intends to fight until Iraq accepts several conditions. On the eve of its latest offensive in July, Iran's foreign minister listed th^ basic demands: a complete Iraqi withdrawal, payment by Baghdad of war reparations and the resignation of Saddam Hussein,
Barring surprisesi Iraq is likely to reject two of these conditions if peace talks ever get under way.
Iraq is probably prepared to pull back its army and end the bloodbath. But Saddam Hussein will not step down to curry favor with Teheran, nor will he give the mullahs the $100 billion they seek in reparations.
Hussein can afford to be tough, since he seems to be in no immediate danger of being toppled by external or internal enemies.
Yet he cannot be overly cocky. He knows th^t Iran needs the war as a distraction from domestic turmoil and a vehicle to export Islamic fundamentalism.
Iran does not have the capability to sustain a thrust hiside Iraq, but Khomeini has the ability to launch endless nuisance strikes designed to bleed Saddam Hussehi and drain his coffers.
Frightened by the prospejrt of an Iranian-inspired Islamic revolution, conservative Arab regimes like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have bankrolled the Iraqi war effort to the tune of approximately $20 billion.
But even these badly-needed funds have not saved Iraq's economy from a downward slide.
As a result of disruptions wreaked by Iranian artillery and air power, such as it is, Iraq's oil revenues fell to $6.7 billion in 1982 from $25 billion in 1980. Iran, by contrast, has managed to export much of its surplus crude. But many of its towns lie in ruin.
Forced to retrench, Iraq has cut development projects, banned all unofficial foreign travel and introduced a stringent austerity campaign.
Short of hard currency, Iraq has arranged topay for its military equipment with oil. The Soviet Union, a big exporter itself, supplies much of Iraq's weaponry while maintaining relations with Iran.
Pursuing a neutral stance, the U.S. has not shipped arms to either side. But Washington's hands-off policy has not stopped some of its allies from dipping into the Iraqi and Iranian markets.
Since Iraq is its greater enemy, Israel has sold Iran, albeit clandestinely, spare parts worth $30 million. It is believed that the Israelis no longer supply the Iranians, who, like the Iraqis, are opposed to Israel's existence as a Jewish, Zionist state.
Egypt has supplied Iraq with $1 billion worth of arms, and Jordan has permitted Iraq to use its Red Sea port of Aqaba for deliveries.
France, which has deep and historic ties with the Middle East, is profoundly embroiled on Iraq's side.
The French have agreed to lend Iraq five Super Etendard planes armed with air-to-sea Exocet missiles of the type that sank British ships in the Falklands war in the South Atlantic.
According to the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the flow of French weapons to Iraq includes 50 Mirage F-1 fighters delivered and 30 on order, Dassault Breguet Falcon 50s troop transport jets, Matra Magic guided missiles, Roland air defence missiles, HOT anti-tank missiles, 150 Super Frelon, Allouette, Gazelle and Puma helicopters, 155 mm artillery guns, VCR armored personnel carriers and communications gear.
This awesOne armory will no doubt enable Iraq to hold its own in the Gulf War. But, in all probability, Iraq will not be able to achieve its original war aims.
In attacking Iran, Iraq violated a 1975 treaty governing the boundary of the Shatt al-Arab, the estuary dividing the two nations. Iraq had full control of the waterwar prior to 1975, but in a moment of weakness agreed to share sovereignty with Iran.
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To appease Iran, Iraq will have to go back to the status quo which prevailed in September of 1980. And, to add insult to ii\fury, Iraq will presumably be compelled to hand back border territory seized in the first month of the conflict.
Saddam Hussehi went to war partly because he sought to assert Iraqi primacy In the Arab world and to fill a vacuum hi the Persian Gulf after the 1979 overthrow of the shah. This ambition has been ravaged by Iran and abetted by Syria and Libya — Teheran's Arab allies.
After three full years of war,. Iraq has nothing to show for all its efforts. It has been a disastrous war for Saddam Hussein.