Word: iraqi
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...fast and firm response to Saddam's latest challenge to Kuwait's security. But the minute the enemy seemed to be tamed, he had to contend with rambunctious allies: France and Russia, having condemned Saddam's latest gambit, tried to block any effort to punish him for it. Iraqi troops did pull back, but not all the way. That left Clinton searching for some way to secure victory without firing a shot, while ensuring that this time Saddam stays put for good. It has not been easy. On Saturday, the U.S. had to negotiate carefully to avoid a Russian veto...
...officials go even further: the sanctions must stay until Saddam goes. Better to continue a pattern of confrontation and standoff, U.S. officials argued, than allow Iraq to rebuild its economy and weapons capabilities. The U.S. hard line inspired sympathy for Iraq among some foreign diplomats, who agreed with Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon's assertion that "the U.S. keeps moving the goalposts...
Thus Hamdoon himself was apparently caught off guard by Saddam's sudden belligerence. Intelligence sources told TIME that the senior Iraqi leadership split over the decision to shift from a diplomatic offensive to a military one. Hawks on Saddam's revolutionary council persuaded Saddam to send the soldiers south. But a State Department official says Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz "is not happy with this muscle flexing. He thinks it's counterproductive and it just gets the back up of the international community." A U.N. official standing near both Aziz and Hamdoon when the news of troop movements came says...
...confronting the West he could convince his own people that he was fighting to relieve their suffering. The deployment of troops coincided with a new domestic austerity program, which cut each citizen's rations for sugar, rice and flour up to 50%. A UNICEF report revealed that 2.5 million Iraqi women and children were suffering from malnutrition because of the sanctions. "The feeling here is that the Americans will try to maintain the sanctions come hell or high water, to achieve their unstated objective of overthrowing the government," says a Western diplomat in Baghdad. "Saddam probably thought he had nothing...
...needs to know he's going to get himself bloodied if he does something stupid," a top Central Command officer said. "And what he's doing now is looking increasingly stupid." But the man's stubbornness has been underestimated before. During the Gulf War, Colin Powell said of the Iraqi army: "First we are going to cut it off, and then we are going to kill it." But like the Black Knight, Saddam keeps on fighting. You can cut him up but you can't shut...