Not-So-Fine Impartiality

Reagan Administration officials, suspending for the moment their usual jealous regard for secrecy, have confirmed that the United States has for some years supplied Iraq with intelligence information to use in its war against Iran. The self-serving reason for admitting now what has long been rumored is obvious. With friendly Arab states upset by revelations of its arms traffic with Iran, the Administration is trying to re-establish its claim to “neutrality” in the Persian Gulf conflict. Arms for Iran, photoreconnaissance for Iraq, it’s all supposed to balance out. Put another way, the right hand was doing one thing, the left another, and now both are revealed as dirty.

The Administration’s covert connection with Iraq at least can be said to have been motivated by a more lucid appraisal of objectives. It is meant to further the sensible policy of trying to prevent any clear victor in the gulf war. That policy also happens to be fervently believed in by every other state in the region--including even Syria, which has broken with its fellow Arabs to support non-Arab Iran against Iraq.

Both Iran and Iraq were regarded as threatening by their neighbors before the beginning of the gulf war more than six years ago, and both are viewed as future threats as well. A triumphant Iran would be encouraged to try to export its Islamic revolution to the conservative states of the Arabian Peninsula and beyond, endangering even such secular regimes as Syria’s. A victorious Iraq could be no less dangerous as it sought to spread its radical ideology throughout the region. If it weren’t for the heavy subsidies that they pay to Iraq, the gulf states probably wouldn’t mind seeing the two countries remain indefinitely preoccupied with each other in a debilitating and stalemated war.

The United States tilted politically toward Baghdad several years ago, after it became clear that Iraq couldn’t win but might well lose the conflict that it started. The tilt has since been fortified with concrete intelligence data. This may have helped keep Iraq from going under. In the process it may also have helped keep President Saddam Hussein, a bloody-handed tyrant, from being overthrown because of his stupid and costly adventurism. The geopolitical considerations cited by the Reagan Administration for doing what it has done are not without moral cost.