The United States will have to strengthen its ties with other countries and the United Nations after the war with Iraq, Richard Holbrooke, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, said at a March 21 lecture in Hale Auditorium.
Holbrooke, who served the United Nations from 1999-2001, said the current administration’s actions in Iraq are legitimate. Saddam Hussein, he said, is disliked intensely by Muslim leaders, and removing him from power will “strengthen opinion of the U.S. in the Arab world.” The most desirable solution for the United States, he said, will be swift and intense military action in Iraq, followed by a period of rebuilding relationships with its allies.
“Everyone’s interests will be best served by the quickest possible military victory,” said Holbrooke, whose speech was sponsored by the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and Citigroup. “It doesn’t matter what your view was before the start of the war. There is no better outcome than a quick victory with a minimum of casualties on both sides.”
Despite praise for the current efforts in Iraq by President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, he said it was a mistake for them to seek a second U.N. resolution. Both houses of Congress, he said, gave Bush full authority to go forward with military action by an overwhelming majority. Both leaders’ insistence on achieving the second resolution, he said, tangled the United States in a diplomatic mess that it could have avoided.
“It [the second resolution] was a serious mistake in terms of presenting America’s case to the world,” Holbrooke said. “Instead of spending the last weeks and months making clear to the world why Saddam was an international outlaw who violated resolutions, we should have just gone ahead with war.”
Holbrooke also stressed the need for the administration to escalate troops quickly in Iraq. In Korea and Vietnam, he said, the United States was too slow to use force. Especially in the case of Vietnam, he said, this may have caused the United States’ demise.
“I would support the process that uses maximum force at the outset,” he said. “I have lived through wars in which a gradual escalation did not work. I have come to the conclusion that once you are engaged, you have to be engaged.”
Holbrooke outlined four issues that the Bush administration should address immediately following the end of the war: post-Saddam Iraq, rebuilding relationships with allies, understanding the Arab world, and redefining the role of the United Nations. How the United States handles the last issue, he said, may be the most telling of how it performs in the other three. It is in this country’s best interest, he said, to allow the United Nations to act as a buffer between the U.S. military and Iraqi civilians.
“We still need friends. It’s more than being the number one military power in the world; it’s also about getting people to follow you,” he said. “Being the strongest doesn’t mean you ignore other people.”
Although the United Nations did not fully support U.S. military actions in Iraq, Holbrooke said, the United States should continue to work with the organization in future endeavors. The United Nations, he said, is an “indispensable part of foreign policy” and a vital organization that helps to keep the United States in check.
“Our goal should be to strengthen the U.N. but not put it ahead of its own national interests,” Holbrooke said. “But we also can’t invent the world the way we want.”
