In the Coming Gulf War, President Bush Must Follow the Golden Rules

摘要

As president bush is about to embark on gulf war II, it is well to remind him of the golden rules of military action. They are fourfold, and I advise him to place a summary of them in a prominent position on his desk. 1. The will to win. This is the most important quality required of a statesman waging war. It embraces all the other martial virtues, including courage. It is what John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson conspicuously lacked in their on-again, off-again war in Vietnam. It is what Winston Churchill in 1940 and Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands War conspicuously possessed. Mr. Bush must ask himself now, before it is too late: Have I the will to go forward in Iraq, without allies if need be, whatever the cost, however great the difficulties, until I have secured my objective―to replace Saddam Hussein's regime with a democratic, peaceful one? If the answer is yes, and I think it is, we need have no fear.