Word: iraq
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Clinton's State and Defense departments are barely functioning yet, and Saddam will probably not allow them much start-up time. Having upstaged the outgoing U.S. President, the Iraqi leader has seized the initiative by offering Clinton a "cease-fire" in the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq that he has been challenging. It was, said the Iraqi press agency, an "expression of good intention...
...Iraq is not in a strong bargaining position. Its military was shattered by the war, and the country is still under tight economic sanctions ordered by the Security Council. But it may turn out that by goading Bush to bomb targets in Iraq, Saddam has improved his situation. He has used the attacks to show his toughness and the Western coalition's weaknesses...
...thing the new President seemed to know about relations with Iraq last week was the importance of continuity. "We are going to adhere to our policy," he said. "We're going to stay with our policy. It is the American policy, and that's what we're going to stay with...
...saying that if Saddam "wants a different relationship" with the U.S. and U.N., "all he has to do is change his behavior." But when the hints that he might "normalize" relations provoked a furor, Clinton backed off, saying it was "almost inconceivable that we can have good relations with Iraq" while Saddam remains in power...
...contretemps has touched off a debate over how the new Administration should handle Iraq. Good relations are not the issue. What the U.S. demands is Iraq's compliance with all the U.N. resolutions; what Iraq wants is an end to the strangulation of sanctions. Clinton may have been right to suggest something more pragmatic. "His statement," observes Charles William Maynes, editor of Foreign Policy magazine, "was not a blunder." What might work, he says, "is persuading Saddam of what Iraq could achieve through adherence to the resolutions...