Summary of

The Gulf War and a Police-Citizen Conflict Compared

By Paul Wahrhaftig

This Article Summary written by: Tanya Glaser, Conflict Research Consortium

Citation: Wahrhaftig, Paul. "The Gulf: Deja vu?" Conflict Resolution Notes. V. 8, No. 4. April 1991. P. 31.

Paul Wahrhaftig finds a lot of similarities between the way the conflict with "the counter-culture group, MOVE" in 1985 and the Gulf conflict in 1991 were handled (p. 31). In both (1) there was imbalance of power between the parties; (2) the stronger party demanded the weaker to surrender without negotiating the issues brought up by the weaker party; (3) each party demonized opponent's leader; negotiations with a "madman" or "Satan" being impossible. As a result, negotiated solutions were abandoned and force became the only apparent alternative.