Word: kofi
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...Kofi Annan isn't the first statesman to try to broker a last-minute peace. Here are some past attempts...
...into the desert, to remote desert bivouacs where they hope U.S. missiles cannot find them. Command centers near the highway to Jordan, the only land link out of this isolated country, have been abandoned as generals disperse to makeshift headquarters. Antiaircraft guns ring the airport where U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan landed for the talks that Iraqis dare to hope will forestall the bombs. "We want him to bring peace," says a shopkeeper watching the babies' coffins go by. "We pray to Allah to help him bring peace...
Time is growing short. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Baghdad last week on what he admitted was one last diplomatic effort to solve the impasse over inspections. As Annan headed off, he got Washington's "terms of reference" in a personal phone call from Clinton. The President spelled out "red lines" on what the U.S. will not accept, mainly anything that dilutes the authority or responsibility of the U.N. Special Commission's weapons inspectors. The U.S. is willing to go along with the suggestion of soothing Saddam's offended sense of sovereignty by sending Security Council diplomats along...
...these days is no mean feat. Annan even got the unqualified support of Richard Butler, the UNSCOM chief who was recently hauled up before the secretary general for impolitic comments. The accord should help complete weapons inspections within the year, said Butler: "If [the Iraqis] follow what is in Kofi Annan's document and really cooperate with us... we are talking a relatively good, short time." So it'll all be over by Christmas...
Compared to the $61 billion Gulf War, of course, an extra few hundred million -- mostly for extra sorties, bigger fuel bills and some "imminent danger pay" for 30,000 U.S. troops -- seems cheap. But in 1991, international contributions brought the U.S. tab down to $7.4 billion. And however thankful Kofi Annan was for that "credible military threat," President Clinton can't start passing the hat this year until all those soldiers actually do something...